Alberta looks to expand Sheriffs’ responsibilities to combat spike in crime | 24CA News
The United Conservative authorities is methods to deal with a spike in weapons, gangs, medication and dysfunction in Alberta.
While Premier Danielle Smith’s mandate letter to Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis doesn’t point out an Alberta Police Service, it does define an growth of Alberta Sheriffs’ purview.
It’s one of many major methods Ellis says the province is trying to combat again in opposition to crime.
“Right now, we’re trying to expand the role of Sheriffs to tackle some of the obviously serious issues,” he instructed Global News in an interview.
“I’m certainly up for the challenge about trying to make Alberta and Albertans feel safer in their communities.”
In the letter to Ellis, Smith lays out quite a few methods to develop the Sheriffs’ roles, like:
- “Creating specialized sheriff-led anti-fentanyl and illegal gun trafficking teams including at the Canada-U.S. border”;
- “Exploring opportunities for continued sheriff deployment in Edmonton, Calgary and other communities to assist with patrols and street-level law enforcement”;
- “Implementing, with sheriffs, a modern ankle bracelet monitoring program and enhanced 24-hour bail monitoring of violent and sexual offenders”;
- and “Reviewing the education and training curriculum for sheriffs so they can assist in a broader scope of policing.”
“We’re going to continue to put out initiatives that are going to try to make both Calgary and Edmonton, and quite frankly the rest of Alberta, a safer place to live, work and play,” Ellis mentioned.
Smith’s mandate letter to Ellis final fall talked about exploring and implementing a provincial police service, one thing omitted from this letter.
Ellis says they’ll assist municipalities and allow them to make their very own selections round policing.
“It’s really about empowering the municipalities, working with them, and to make sure that they are getting the service they deserve in their municipality, and see whatever that’s going to look like,” he defined.
It’s a call welcomed by Alberta municipalities.
Its director of cities as much as 500,000, Tyler Gandam, says he was involved over the potential of a provincial police service being pressured upon municipalities.
“Not seeing that in Minister Ellis’ mandate, and allowing municipalities to choose the police service that best suits them is what’s important for Alberta municipalities,” Gandam instructed Global News.
He’s additionally mayor of the City of Wetaskiwin.
Gandam says the mandate letter units good priorities in place to fight crime.
“Some of the things we’re seeing with our own municipality is just making sure that we’re addressing the root causes of the problem,” he mentioned.
“We’ve got mental health, addictions, homelessness. When we start addressing those issues within our communities, I think we’ll see the change in crime in our local communities.”
Meantime, University of Alberta criminologist Temitope Oriola says it is sensible that Alberta didn’t point out a provincial police service.
“The discourse around provincial police had gone on without sufficient consultation at the grass roots,” Oriola defined.
“I think this represents a strategic shift.”
While he does agree with a number of the factors outlined in Ellis’ mandate letter, he doesn’t consider extra boots on the bottom will remedy the spike in crime.
Oriola additionally says an growth of the purview of Sheriffs might result in some bigger points.
“I foresee jurisdictional battles down the road. I think it’s inevitable,” he mentioned.
“I worry that the relationship may work at first, but over time, there will be units within the Calgary Police Service and Edmonton Police Service whose domains will be affected.”
Ellis can be being requested to develop the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT) Gang Suppression Unit.
The purpose is to have extra of these items monitor scrap steel sellers and gangs to decrease catalytic converter thefts as each Calgary and Edmonton see a surge.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
