shill@whistlerquestion.com

At least one area lawmaker is concerned that plans to amalgamate RCMP detachments in the Lower Mainland will lead to losses or reductions in policing services for rural communities.

Speaking at Pemberton Council’s bi-monthly meeting, Mayor Elinor Warner told Whistler RCMP S/Sgt. Hilton Haider she was “very concerned” about the recently announced amalgamation of 16 Lower Mainland RCMP detachments into one larger district comprised of five separate areas.

“We are looking at it more as an integration of services,” said Sgt. Murray MacAulay, media relations officer for the RCMP Integration Team. “It’s been talked about for many years, if not decades, about making a new policing model for the Lower Mainland area.

“In 1999, there was a B.C. Policing Study that was done to look at that idea,” he said. “Last fall, it was announced that Assistant Commissioner Gary Forbes would be designated as the Lower Mainland Commander.”

On April 2, RCMP officials announced that the 16 RCMP detachments would be amalgamating their command structure, and begin rooting out redundancies in service.

“The big geographic picture is called the District,” he said. “The District is b roken down into five smaller areas, with area one being comprised of Whistler, Pemberton, Squamish, Bowen Island, North Vancouver and the Sunshine Coast.”

MacAulay said by “integrating” detachments, resources would now be shared, freeing up more RCMP members to get out on patrols, and answering calls.

“It certainly won’t mean less jobs,” he said. “The whole idea behind this is that it is cost cutting, but in order to re-route the funds back to the front end, so we can put more members out on the road.”

He said the changing nature of crime and mobility of criminals was what the amalgamation was really trying to address.

“What is really driving this is that we have become a very mobile society,” he said. “When we first started policing in the Lower Mainland area, it was in major cities and people generally lived, worked, and did their crimes in the communities which they lived.

“With the development of transportation networks, and increased access to vehicles and other transportation, we a s a society are all over the map now,” he said. “This type of organizational structure is going to facilitate the easy and quick movement of resources.”

The first big change to come down the policing pipeline, according to MacAulay, will be the creation of an Integrated Homicide Investigation team (IHIT), later this summer.

“There is going to be one homicide team for the whole district,” he said. “That is one of the initiatives, which is a part of this whole process, that will be up and running quicker than any other initiative.

“It’s going to be, in my opinion, a lot better, because we will have full time investigators who do nothing else but investigate homicides using the latest techniques,” he said. “In the past, each detachment essentially investigated its own area homicides, occasionally with aid from other detachments.”

He said with the new model, homicide investigations will move ahead more quickly.

“When a homicide occurs we will have a lot of manpower to dedicate to the invest igation,” he said. “In most homicides you need to get the majority of evidence in during the first 48 hours.

“This is a model, not only for the homicide team, but a model for sharing resources, and reducing redundancies that is used all across the continent,” he said. “We will apply the same principle to our K9 units so there will be dogs available for any detachment 24 hours a day.”

For Warner, the amalgamation has her concerned that Pemberton will get lost in the command structure shuffle.

She was also frustrated that communities were not allowed to give input on the integration plan.

“There has been no communication about this,” she said. “It was essentially dropped on us.

“We haven’t had a chance to review this amalgamation, or make any comment, voice concerns, or even get assurances,” she said. “That is very poor communication.”

Haider agreed with Warner at Tuesday’s council meeting, admitting he had only learned that he would no longer hold the title of Whistler RCMP Detachmen t Commander through an email.

“Communication could be improved,” he said.

“We didn’t even get emails,” said Warner. “We had to learn through the television, like everyone else.

“Our concern is the same as when our RCMP detachment amalgamated with Whistler, and that is we want to keep what we have here,” she said. “This is a growing community, and we can’t afford to lose services.”

Warner said it was a “huge shock” to hear about the amalgamation from unofficial sources first.

“We are definitely worried about losing our small RCMP station here in the Village and the support staff who work there,” she said. “The way they seem to be doing business lately, they could come and tell us that the Pemberton detachment is gone, and we wouldn’t have any say in it.”

Warner was also concerned with the fact that small communities will soon be responsible for a part of rural policing costs.

“With this new big picture, we don’t even know how much we will be required to pay,” she said.

In Whistler, Bill Barratt, general manager of community service for the Resort Municipality of Whistler, said he did not share Warner’s concerns.

“I think they are just looking at ways to become more effective in the way they deal with crime,” he said. “From my understanding, our senior RCMP officer would answer to North Vancouver, while before they answered to Chilliwack.

“I think their end goal is appropriate, which is dealing with the shifting boundaries of crime and being more effective in dealing with the issues they face,” said Barratt. “I think the intention is to provide improved police servicing, which is a good thing from my perspective. I’m not overly concerned about this.”

MacAulay said Warner’s fears were unfounded, as the integration’s goals were to provide better policing services everywhere.

“In the long term the goal is to have more members out on the road,” he said. “As a matter of fact, it is our plan to bring a higher level of service to communities then is currently out there.”

But, he cautioned that the amalgamation was only in the very beginning stages, and as such, he could not give precise deta ils of future redundancy cutting initiatives.

“If I can use an analogy as to how far we’ve gone so far with this, it is like we are going to drive from here to Halifax, and we have just left the parking lot,” he said. “We still have a lot of things to work out.”