Kelvin Goertzen, spent an evening with Steinbach RCMP officer Colin Choquetre patrolling Steinbach and municipal areas.
CIS Unit Touted As Benefit For Local Policing
Steinbach MLA and P.C. Justice Critic, Kelvin Goertzen, spent last Friday evening with Steinbach RCMP officer Colin Choquetre patrolling Steinbach and municipal areas to get a first hand understanding of the challenges local law enforcement face.
“I always come away from these experiences with a great sense of admiration for the work that all law enforcement officers do. It’s a challenging job that requires so many skill sets and the ability to be able to respond to difficult situations quickly,” said Goertzen. “We are fortunate to have men and women who are willing to do such an important job and who do it at such a high level.”
Goertzen said it’s clear that the Steinbach RCMP detachment is struggling to keep up with the growth of the region and the increase in policing services that requires.
“We live in a region that is growing quickly, and that means that you are going to have more calls for police assistance whether it’s a motor vehicle accident, domestic situations or other crimes,” said Goertzen. “The local RCMP are under significant pressure to meet the growing demands of growing communities.”
Goertzen said one thing that he has been hearing from law enforcement is the need for a Criminal Investigation Services (CIS) unit that would be responsible for doing the hands on investigations for serious crimes.
“The current challenge is that so much of an officers time is spent doing follow-up and investigation on crimes that have happened that it’s very difficult to do the pro-active police work that people want to see,” said Goertzen. “A dedicated unit that specifically did these investigations would free up officers to do proactive police work.”
Goertzen said such a unit could consist of 3 officers. He noted that the province had promised to hire 60 new officers, half for rural Manitoba, with federal funding that was provided several years ago. The NDP has yet to fund those additional officers and he would like to see some of that funding come to the Steinbach detachment for such an initiative.
