The Grande Prairie Police Service is preparing for the final period of their transition, before they fully become the police of jurisdiction in October.
Chair of the Grande Prairie Police Commish and Police Committee, Dan Wong says that the service is currently training and recruiting both new, and experienced officers. Wong added that they still plan to do a couple more rounds of hiring before October.
Wong says the current point of the transition is going really well, and that they have Watches completely staffed. Wong said that this is good news, but is also a tad uncommon.
“That doesn’t usually happen, because the way the RCMP works is there is constant transfers coming in and out of Grande Prairie, so it always leaves some vacancies,” Wong said.
With officials saying that the transition is going smoothly, the police force is expected to become the police of jurisdiction in October. Wong says that to make that happen, they had to hit multiple key milestones. Another stump the GPPS had to encounter was not having a recent Alberta municipality complete a transition like this in years.
“I think the transition has gone as smoothly as it can. I think what has made it so successful is the leadership, we have the right people in place. Â There hasn’t been a transition in Alberta like this since Camrose, and that was almost 70 years ago.”
Wong added that even statistics are showing a difference with having so many officers on patrol.
“Crime stats are down because we have an abundance of police officers that are always in their vehicles doing their patrols or just doing their active investigations.”
The new 9-1-1 dispatch centre is also on pace to be fully operational after their renovations are complete in October, slating to lineup with the GPPS becoming the police of jurisdiction.
The graduation of the third recruiting class of the GPPS and the sixth Experienced Officer Program, is expected to take place on Friday, March 13.
