Another step in the transition to a municipal police force has been made as the Grande Prairie Police Service unveiled what the new squad cars and uniforms will look like before they officially hit the streets.
The new uniforms boast a black-on-black design with a prominent red stripe down the officer’s pant leg and GPPS Chief Dwayne Lakusta says the new uniforms mark a “milestone” for the police service and certain design choices were made to emphasize the change from the RCMP to the GPPS.
“We’re staying in line with a lot of our municipal partners, right across Alberta when it comes to the colour of the vehicles, the red stripe and black uniforms,” he says. “We also want to present change, we’re presenting a change in the policing deployment model here and going to a municipal service, we want to have our differences as well so we stand out to the community.”
Currently, the RCMP retains jurisdiction in the city; however, the first GPPS class of experienced officers will hit the streets this spring, while the RCMP remains the primary operating police service. Chief Lakusta says the vehicles will primarily serve as a recruiting and training tool for the GPPS for the time being.
“We have to remember that the RCMP remain the primary policing jurisdiction, they’re going to be responding to all the calls for service for the foreseeable future, but you will see our vehicles out on the road for the most part for training, transporting our members around, but we’ll also see them in the downtown core sooner than later,” he says.
Additionally, Lakusta has confirmed another order for ten vehicles has been placed, which should be received by September. The Chief says it is important that the GPPS focus on the assessment of needs before ordering additional vehicles preemptively.
“We want to be running a very efficient police service so we’ll be conducting an assessment of how many vehicles we need for our purposes,” he says. “More vehicles will be marked, we’ll be looking at a number of those, but we’re also going to be needing vehicles that will be unmarked, used for investigative purposes or other enforcement activities.”
The official transition from RCMP jurisdiction to the GPPS is scheduled for March 30th, 2026, with increased collaborative efforts between the two agencies in the meantime.