After months of internal deliberations, the City of Grande Prairie’s Crime Prevention department is now under the scope of the RCMP.
Director of Protective and Social Services Chris Manuel says the reorganization of Crime Prevention as a department began just over a year ago when the former program manager took a position in another municipality. During the review, the decision was made to gradually roll portions of its programming into larger departments like the RCMP.
“Frankly, it’s in alignment with other initiatives in the city where we eliminate really small departments with only a few people into much larger groups,” Manuel says.
“Crime Prevention and Community Policing were previously two separate organizations and they worked closely together, but now what we are doing is encompassing most of what would be considered Crime Prevention activities under our Community Policing unit,” he adds.
The two most popular and used programs from Crime Prevention, according to Manuel, are the youth and adult intervention programs. They have moved over to the RCMP, and will now fall under the Community Policing branch as well.
Manuel adds one position was eliminated due to the reconfiguration but says it was an administrative position not responsible for programming.
One of the major changes when it comes to efficiency, Manuel notes, was the assessment of the dozens of member committees. He suggests duplication and unnecessary representation was something the City aimed to cut down.
“Do you really need someone from Enforcement Services, the RCMP, Crime Prevention department and Community and Social Development all representing the City on the same committees?”
The City on 99th office will remain the primary office for Crime Prevention.