Grande Prairie City Councillor Dylan Bressey says he hopes to hear more from residents when it comes to the ongoing Municipal Police Service review. City council is currently looking at the possibility of bringing in a municipal police force instead of the RCMP.
Bressey says he thinks it is unfortunate the conversation is not coming up more, because, in his opinion, this is an extremely important conversation to have.
“I really hope that residents will get informed, show up at the open houses, and learn about what the current state of policing is right now and share their thoughts about do they see improvements that should be made,” Bressey says.
He says that when a service is as expensive and important as policing it is council’s responsibility to look at it and figure out the best way to deliver it.
“We do that with recreation programs, we do that with the economic development, we do that with snow removal, so of course we should be doing it with policing as well.”
Bressey currently sits on the Municipal Policing Advisory Committee, made up of two city councillors and five public members, which he says gives him a different viewpoint to look at the current process. He argues the benefit of holding these types of public consultations is finding out how residents are experiencing policing in the city.
“So whether we continue with the RCMP, or we make a change in our policing model, we can improve it,” Bressey says.
Municipal Police Service review open houses are being held from 4 to 8 p.m. on January 16th and 17th at Teresa Sargent Hall in the Montrose Cultural Centre.