BAIE VERTE & SPRINGDALE N.L.
With less officers on duty and wider areas to patrol, municipal leaders are concerned over a RCMP decision to regionalize detachments in Baie Verte and Springdale.
In August, the police implemented a policy to combine resources between the Baie Verte and Springdale RCMP detachments.
This means that an officer on duty for both the Springdale and Baie Verte area works alternate weeks from each detachment; out of Springdale one week and Baie Verte the next.
Springdale’s deputy mayor Shawn Weir says the immediate concern for the town council is possible delays in response time.
“It’s an hour and a half drive from Baie Verte to Springdale directly, but there are many other outlying communities the Springdale RCMP detachment handles,” said Weir. “If an officer is on duty in Baie Verte area one week and happens to be in Middle Arm, and something were to happen in Brighton in our area, that officer has got a three-hour drive to address the issue.
“It’s this response time issue we’re primarily concerned about.”
In an emailed response, the RCMP says there will be two officers on call in the off hours in one of two detachments, depending on the rotating basis of each week. These on-call officers are in place for high risk situations or difficult weather conditions, but the RCMP did confirm there will be an impact on response time in other situations.
“While there may be some impact on response times to what are assessed as low-risk complaints, our operational plans ensure we have access to additional resources for high-risk situations,” the RCMP said in the emailed response.
“It’s an hour and a half drive from Baie Verte to Springdale directly, but there are many other outlying communities the Springdale RCMP detachment handles.”
-Springdale deputy mayor Shawn Weir
Weir says he has been informed it is the on-duty officer’s responsibility to assess whether a situation needs the attention of one of these on-call officers.
“If the officer feels the situation needs to be dealt with faster, then they have that option,” he said. “From what I understand this is entirely at the officer’s discretion.”
According to the deputy mayor, the RCMP informed their council this policy was enacted not because of operational costs, but because of the crime rates and low volume of calls in these areas.
“They assured us on a couple occasions that this was not a budgetary decision, but it was implemented for the benefit of (the RCMP detachment) members,” he said. “Because of the low crime rate in this area they felt they could take the officers from Springdale and spread out to share with Baie Verte.”
In their response, the RCMP confirmed the decision was made based on call volume, demographic information, patterns of crime and health and safety of their employees.
Brighton Mayor Stewart Fillier also opposes the changes, and worries the reduction in police presence may encourage illegal activity.
“I was disappointed that they see fit at this time to reduce services,” he said. “A new pub opened in Triton, and with marijuana legalization there’s a lot of worries of people driving under the influence.
“If they know there’s not going to be any RCMP presence even as close as Robert’s Arm or Springdale then this kind of activity will increase. You can be sure people are quite aware of that and I’d say they judge their decisions accordingly.”
“This area is fairly quiet. The RCMP have had no reason to patrol here very often in the past so we wouldn’t notice any adverse effects.”
-Brighton Mayor Stewart Fillier
However, thus far both Weir and Fillier say they have not heard of any serious issue occurring because officers were on duty outside of their immediate area.
“This area is fairly quiet,” said Fillier. “The RCMP have had no reason to patrol here very often in the past so we wouldn’t notice any adverse effects.”
This same policy was implemented on the Northern Peninsula for the detachments in St. Anthony and Roddickton-Bide Arm, as well as the detachments in Port Saunders and Flower’s Cove. It was met with similar criticisms from municipal leaders in those communities.
Increased burden and expected update
Another issue that concerns Weir is that this new policy may put additional strain on the volunteer fire departments of the area.
“If these officers are called to a vehicle collision when they (RCMP) are on duty elsewhere, our fire departments may be maintaining accident sites for an additional two hours,” he said. “These guys are a super group of volunteers but it is asking a bit much.”
According to Weir an update from the RCMP is expected in a month, based on community feedback from this new policy. The deputy mayor says the town council is awaiting this update before determining what action they might take.
“We’re going to keep a close eye on this,” he said. “This policy was implemented before we had any chance to respond to it.
“I hope nothing serious does happen because people know about the delays in response time.”
Baie Verte Mayor Brandon Philpott and MHA for Baie Verte-Green Bay Brian Warr could not be reached for comment before deadline.
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