BANFF – A member of Banff’s police advisory committee is calling for elected officials to create a working group to look at other solutions to prevent crimes of sexual assault beyond hiring more RCMP officers.
Aurora Borin, who spoke out during service review against the Town of Banff hiring two additional RCMP officers, suggested council create a working group of industry members, frontline workers, subject matter experts and RCMP to research and propose community-minded solutions for council to implement.
“The working group idea would be more to present council with community-minded municipal ideas that might be able to help prevent further drink spiking and other sexual crimes in ways that maybe don’t require policing,” said Borin, who is an expert in the field of systemic and institutional equity and a provincially-recognized consent educator.
“I don’t believe that policing and police officers, at least in the system that we have, are a workable solution for this particular problem. Evidence across North America for the last decade shows this pretty clearly.”
The suggested council-struck working group would have a different mandate to the Police Advisory Committee, which is made up of community members and two town councillors who provide recommendations to Staff Sgt. Mike Buxton-Carr, the Banff RCMP detachment commander.
Instead of hiring additional police officers, Borin said council could also direct the Banff RCMP detachment to employ a mental health professional to assist victims of sexual crimes in meaningful ways.
“Council could liaise with other resort towns across Canada and North America,” she said. “It is likely they have had similar troubles and there may be interesting solutions not previously considered.”
A group of teenage girls was walking near the pedestrian bridge on Halloween night on Oct. 31, 2021, when one was assaulted by a man in a Halloween costume, sparking an RCMP investigation that so far has not been able to turn up any conclusive leads.
Following community lobbying efforts in the wake of this sexual assault, security cameras are being investigated by the Town of Banff as a way to help reduce and solve crimes.
Administration is drafting a comprehensive report for council on the implications of setting up security cameras as well as potentially identifying any crime hotspots where cameras might help RCMP.
In August 2021, reports began to emerge that drinks were being spiked at local bars, which quickly prompted a public advisory from the Banff RCMP.
Police have emphasized it is highly likely a considerable number of drink spiking offences go unreported for various reasons.
“These tragedies and the feeling of unease in town are discussed frequently in Police Advisory Committee meetings,” said Borin.
Borin said police have their place in society, noting there are many crimes that police are very effective at responding to, investigating, and preventing.
She said the most up-to-date statistics from Banff’s crime severity index show that these crimes have reduced by half since 2008.
“In this, the RCMP appears to be doing their job and doing it well,” she said.
For the past decade, however, Borin said RCMP across Canada have been the focus of countless investigations and exposes regarding failure to prevent sexual crimes and the way they support victims of these crimes.
She said the institution of the RCMP as a whole is ill-equipped to handle the kinds of crimes where often even the victim doesn’t know who the perpetrator was and there are no witnesses.
“Police officers are not mental health professionals and do not know how to support individuals in post-incident stress,” she said.
“Items like rape kits are intrusive and often administered by well-meaning officers in a way that further traumatizes victims,” she added.
“Hiring two additional officers gives the appearance of doing something about the problem, but in effect does little or nothing towards preventing further sexual crimes.”
Borin said she understands the desire to assuage people’s fear, but noted it’s important to remember how many people feel less safe around police officers.
She added a majority of disabled, Indigenous, trans, and People of Colour community members fear that everyday interactions with police will lead to harassment, and worse, these are the very same segments of the population most at risk for sexual violence.
Borin said in hoping to make one segment of the population feel safe, the proposal to hire two additional RCMP officers risks making other segments feel less so, which is an issue of equity.
“Police officers in an attempt to reduce sexual crimes are more likely, statistically, to impart some kind of intentional or unintentional harm on these communities while not preventing sexual crimes, so it’s almost that double whammy,” she said.
For now, Banff town council has asked administration to come back with a detailed written report with an analysis and business case for two additional RCMP officers no later than April 11, which is timed to allow for any amendments before the tax rate bylaw if there’s a need to fund more police officers.
Councillor Ted Christensen said he believes additional police are warranted sooner rather than later for a host of reasons, including council priorities for the RCMP such as increased traffic enforcement.
A long-time member of the police advisory committee, he said the fact that the local RCMP detachment is stretched to the limit has long been established.
“This has been on the books for a number of years and to me it’s been presented as a need,” said Coun. Christensen.
“We need to fulfill our need for boots on the ground; this is an immediate concern.”
Policing services in Banff are provided by 14 RCMP members under a municipal police service contract with the Town of Banff. By comparison, the Town of Canmore has 19 municipally funded police positions.
