On July 2nd, the Alberta RCMP announced the first round of new policing roles promised last year as a response to addressing rural crime. 

These new roles are a combination of boots in rural-aiding detachments, as well as other specialized civilian roles that will help to free up officers for priority calls. 

76 new policing positions and 57 civilian support positions were announced, with 46 of those roles already filled.

In central Alberta, 10 positions have been created in Blackfalds, Rocky Mountain (two officers), Stettler, Camrose, Leduc, Morinville, Parkland, Strathcona and Thorsby. 

To date, the 46 filled positions include:

  • 25 frontline policing positions in rural Alberta communities
  • 18 centralized officer positions to provide specialized services for all communities
  • three civilian support positions that provide administrative and program support to free up officers for priority calls and community response

Media Relations Manager for the Alberta RCMP Fraser Logan said in order to find the best communities to place these officers in, an analysis of the workloads was conducted over the past few months. 

"That analysis includes factors such as travel time for members across the detachment, call volumes for the types of crimes being reported in specific areas and then the time required for investigation," Logan said, adding that they used data like this to determine which detachments are seeing higher caseloads and allocating officers and resources proportionately. 

He said it's important to remember that RCMP detachments do not work fully independent of each other and that often there is overlap in service from surrounding detachments when a situation arises. 

"If there is an issue in the Blackfalds area, we can get detachment members coming from Red Deer, from Rocky Mountain House - all sorts of different detachments, depending on what’s going on. No one is working in a vacuum," he said. 

As far as the civilian positions go, Fraser said these positions are filled by specialized applicants who are able to reduce the workload or create an easier workflow for frontline officers. 

"A lot of these positions will be centralized in our district offices, or our larger detachments because it makes more sense to centralize them and then they can provide support to multiple detachments. You won’t necessarily be seeing these individuals in the detachments themselves - we keep those for our frontline members who have to respond quickly to priority calls in their area."

The frontline support unit positions include:

  • 10 new positions on the Call Back Unit
  • 2 positions for the 'K' Member Operational Support Section

Specialized unit positions include:

  • 3 positions in provincial Child Advocacy Centres (including one in the Central Alberta Child Advocacy Centre)
  • 3 positions in the South Emergency Response Team

Civilian positions, centrally located but providing support to other detachments include:

  • 1 position for Court Case Management
  • 2 positions for Criminal Operations Strategic Management Services
  • 4 positions for the Offender Management Program 
  • 4 positions for the Community Engagement and Outreach Specialist services

Logan said officers will go where they are needed, and with continual analysis of operations, officers could be moved to communities that need more help or re-allocated if the detachments aren't needing so many people on board. 

You can read the full breakdown and release here.