Alberta government giving a boost to rural police funding

LEDUC (660 NEWS) – Rural policing is getting a boost around Alberta thanks to an announcement from the UCP government.

The government is committing $286 million over five years to add 300 RCMP officers to help combat a rise in rural crime.

“This will take us up to approximately 1900 police officers,” said Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer. “It will also allow us to hire support staff to allow us to do tactical units and provide technical expertise to make sure we have the behind the scenes work that can be done to go after drug trafficking, organized crime and other tactical areas.”

Schweitzer said the government is also improving call centre response times and are partnering with municipal and federal governments on the plan.

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“It’ll be about $86 million from the federal government and the $200 million that would come from the municipalities over that five year period of time. Plus, we’re making additional investments into the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team.”

The provincial government is already contributing around $262 million to the RCMP under the Provincial Police Service Agreement.

The UCP is also creating an Alberta Police Advisory Board where municipal leaders will work in collaboration with law enforcement to ensure local needs are heard and implemented.

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