Grande Prairie Mayor Bill Given and his counterpart in Dawson Creek, Mayor Dale Bumstead, are hoping to organize a meeting on inter-provincial policing where the two communities are concerned. Given says both have a comparable demographic and are seeing very similar trends in criminal activity.
Given says he and Bumstead intend to invite British Columbia’s E Division and Alberta’s K Division, along with the Solicitor Generals from both provinces, to take part in the meeting.
“We’ll send out an invitation and organize an event hopefully bringing representatives of all of those different parties to the Peace Region so they can get a better understanding of just how integrated the economy, social interactions, and everything else is in this region to help grow their understanding of the perhaps unique nature and needs of policing in this area.”
Given says neither mayor currently knows just how much information sharing is actually happening between law enforcement in both communities.
“With ALERT on the Alberta side there is regular interaction with similar colleagues on the BC side, but we don’t know how much interaction or information sharing there is on a day-to-day basis so that is something that we are looking to learn more about, and to encourage all the parties to make more efforts to ensure that we have a really robust system of policing in the area.”
Given says crime and criminals float freely across both municipal and provincial boundaries, and policing in the region needs to reflect that. It’s intended that the meeting will allow for the sharing of information between all parties, as well as a potential opportunity for strategizing.