A Town Hall meeting was hosted by the RCMP in Martensville October 30th at North Ridge Community Centre. The purpose of this meeting was to invite the public to learn more about the local detachment and provide an opportunity for residents to ask questions. Meetings were also held for the RM of Corman Park, Warman, Delisle and Radisson. The meeting began with Sgt. Rob Eyre providing some information and updates about our detachment and discussed the importance of intelligence led policing, advising those in attendance how important it is for the public to be their eyes and ears because they are unable to be everywhere. “If you see anything suspicious, please call it in with as much information as possible. We have yet to solve an unreported crime,” Eyre said. Other topics covered included how calls that come in are prioritized, traffic, radar, check stops, RCMP presence within the local schools, community presence, neighborhood watch and more.
Eyre also explained that the local RCMP detachment has two or more members available 24 hours a day and through a municipal contract, the City of Martensville pays for 8 members and the City of Warman pays for 10 members. An update of statistics for the year show that the 2018 calls for service from January to October in Martensville are down approximately 600 from 2017.
Staff Sgt. Greg Abbott of the Saskatoon RCMP then spoke a little bit about how policing has changed in Saskatchewan over the years. There are concerns nowadays that didn’t used to be an issue and police require training in various areas such as on school lockdown measures, conducted energy weapons (CEWS’s), dangerous drugs and more. “These are just some of the challenges that members have. Our laws may not be perfect, but they are
pretty good when compared to the rest of the world,” Abbot stated.
Abbott also discussed the recent legalization of cannabis and how the RCMP is aware that the number of impaired drivers will increase, which will be a focus of theirs. “In my opinion, the biggest threat to public safety is impaired drivers,” Abbott said. Currently there are 900 RCMP members within Saskatchewan, and 100 of them are Drug Recognition trained. Abbott continued to state that for him, cell phones are the second biggest risk to public safety, commenting on the numerous deaths that occur as a result of motorists being on their phones.
From there, the meeting was open to questions from the public with some concerns being raised about speeding within town limits. RCMP plan to host another town hall meeting this spring.
