It has been around for a year, but not much has been heard from Canmore’s newest public committee.
However, that is something police committee chair Allan Vonkeman hopes to change soon.
Vonkeman said over the past year, the group has built a foundation of understanding about its role and the local RCMP detachment.
“We feel, as a committee, to do our job we need a good understanding of where we are,” he said.
The past year has seen the committee working on a business plan for the RCMP by looking at what roles they fill, what their needs are and where their manpower is placed.
Vonkeman said the force has more than one boss, including upper echelons in Ottawa, K-Division in Edmonton and the local municipality.
“Some priorities are set by Ottawa and some set by K-Division,” he said. “The business plan is trying to figure out what is left that we have control over at a community level and what percentage of time can be spent looking at community events and tailoring (policing) to our community.”
Over the next year, said Vonkeman, the committee wants to begin public consultations to gauge community’s wants and needs when it comes to policing.
“Now that we are starting to get our feet underneath us, we are hoping to get some of that stuff together,” he said.
The committee is made up of seven members appointed by council, including Councillor Hans Helder, Karen Fraser, John Reeves, Rick Davison, Monica Tos and Cara Lynn Stelmack.
In addition to the committee, the RCMP and chief administrative officer of the Town are represented, although not with voting positions.
Vonkeman said the committee has three main focuses.
The first is to create a little more distance between politicians and local police. The committee, he said, represents council to the RCMP.
“That eliminates the possible perception of council trying to influence policing,” he said.
The second focus is to gather input from the community on policing issues.
“A major part of our job is to reach out to the community and find out what are the issues affecting safety and the perceptions of safety and what can we do to make it a safer community,” Vonkeman said. “We take that back to the RCMP.”
The third purpose of the police committee is to fill the role of public complaints director, as mandated by the Solicitor General’s office.
The committee recently named Sandy Nemeth as the public complaints director.
Vonkeman said the role is not to investigate complaints, but be a point of contact and function as a go between for a citizen with a complaint and the RCMP.
If a citizen has a specific complaint about a member of the police force, the PCD would be able to educate them about the processes to file a grievance and act as someone to hold that process accountable.
How specific RCMP complaints are handled is laid out in policies for the force and legally the RCMP must follow those processes.
Vonkeman said if a complaint is of a nature where a citizen feels they need to be heard, the PCD can work with them and mediate that.
“Sometimes people are just looking for a place to be heard,” he said, adding the director may also handle feedback from the community about what RCMP are doing right.
The public complaints director reports to the committee, but does not provide specific details of a complaint.
The committee is also exploring collaborative efforts in other municipalities between nighclubs or drinking establishments and police.
Banff, for example, runs a successful Barwatch program that sees bouncers at bars in direct contact with RCMP on duty at night.
He said they are looking at other programs to see if there is a fit in Canmore for one, and if it is a good idea, how to adapt it locally.
The answers to those questions, he added, would come out of the expected community consultation process over the next year.
The challenge is the committee has no budget for facilitators to begin that process.
Anyone wishing to contact the PCD can do so by email at [email protected] or by phone at 403-609-8738. Both email and telephone are completely confidential.
Alternatively, someone wishing to contact the committee itself can email [email protected]
The group meets publicly on the fourth Monday of each month at the Civic Centre.
