According to the commander of the Red Deer RCMP detachment, reducing property crime in the city will require tackling its underlying causes -- drugs being the big one.

“If you solve addictions, you solve homelessness and you get all the supports for the folks out there with mental health issues, you’ll solve a lot of crime,” says Supt. Ken Foster in an interview to discuss his first year as commanding officer in Alberta’s third-largest city.

He says that’s because most property crimes are committed to feed an addiction.

With the city and province experiencing an opioid epidemic, the RCMP sits on the Red Deer Coalition on the Opioid Crisis. Foster did not rule out the merits of supervised consumption services as a solution.

“Those are decisions to be made by other people but I’ll support anything that achieves absolute harm reduction, has all the wrap-around services,” he says.

“The end goal is to solve those addiction problems, give those folks the services that they require, to get their lives back in order. Whatever that looks like, then I’ll support it.”

Third quarter statistics from the detachment suggest that property crimes have increased from last year but at a slower rate than previous years.

The commander also addressed calls for a municipal police force that arose during the municipal election.

They irked him, Foster says, because he’s proud of the RCMP and the work its officers do.

But when it comes to the city’s benefit, he says municipalities receive a 10 per cent discount from the federal government when they use the RCMP. That is not the case with municipal police forces, he continues.

As well, Foster says municipalities would not be able to afford services like explosive disposal or major crimes units on their own.

“No disrespect to municipal agencies, they’re all fine agencies but for bang for buck, I just don’t understand why anybody would want to look elsewhere,” he says.

He stresses that even though the RCMP is a federal agency, he answers to local authorities.

“I spent more time interacting with city administration and elected officials here than I do, my superiors. Or Ottawa,” he says. “Our priorities, goals and objectives are set by the mayor and council in conjunction with us and public consultation.”

That would be the Annual Policing Plan, which includes five areas for 2017-18:

  • Reducing property crime
  • Preventing and reducing youth crime
  • Building community relationships
  • Increase presence downtown
  • Increase calls back to victims by 10 per cent and achieving a 90 per cent attendance rate for break and enter complaints