Crime Reduction, Policing and Growth.

We need to celebrate. Moncton has become the first city in New Brunswick to cross the 100,000 citizen mark. That is a huge deal, and it is very important. It is also not looking like there is going to be any end to the growth.

So, why, when we talk about crime reduction and policing, does it feel like we are not ready? The truth is, because we are not. Not because we are not willing to do what it takes. There are plenty of examples of the city trying to do what is needed and being blocked. Perhaps now is the time to make the changes to that.

The reality is that when we look at crime in Moncton and the response of the RCMP, we are faced with the fact that the priorities of the City and its citizens often do not often align. Priorities like property crime or other small crimes do not seem to rate the needed attention, with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business suggesting that as much as 30% of members do not even bother reporting minor crime matters because of the lack of response. Personal observation on social media suggests that there are similar attitudes from residents as well, with a number not bothering to report because of low response rate. The part that becomes even more concerning is that there are a bunch who do call to report property crimes that suggest even if they do call to make a report, there is no response to the report or it could be days later before the RCMP do show up.

Response times and rates like this, as well as the unwillingness to even report because there is no expectation of a productive outcome, suggest that there is no value in maintaining the RCMP as a community policing force.

The underlying concern at this point is that Moncton was, at the time, forced to convert the city police to the RCMP, and that the RCMP was supposed to operate as a municipal force. If the council does not have the ability to have some direction of the priorities of the force and to allocate new funding to specific goals, then the RCMP is not actually acting as a municipal force, which is what it was contracted to be.

In my personal opinion, this breach of contract alone is enough to allow Moncton to take the steps to move towards a local municipal force without consequence.

The above table shows different municipalities just within New Brunswick that either were never forced to dissolve their local forces and contract with the RCMP, or have already chosen to return to a local force.

Of all the police forces shown, the only one that has even close to the same low officer-to-resident level is Kennebecasis. If you remove the lowest and highest ratios amongst municipal forces, you end up with an average ratio of 192 officers per 100,000 residents. If that number were applied to Moncton, it would result in a force of 197 officers (or approximately 200) compared to the 112 that would be considered Moncton’s portion of the Codiac RCMP.

However, and this is important. There is little to no value in increasing these numbers to this level for the current RCMP contract. Largely because without the ability to have those officers priorities matched up to council and residents priorities rather than the priorities determined by the RCMP and provincial/federal governments, it would not be of any benefit to the city and in fact would be a significant waste of funds.

Given the current rate of growth in Moncton and the current crime rates as reported, the status quo is unsustainable. Either the RCMP have got to commit to honouring our priorities as our municipal force, or we have to move towards our own municipal force and quickly. Waiting for the province to decide they are willing to change the Police Act to allow us to create some priorities for the RCMP simply is not sufficient, as successive governments have proven that there is almost zero interest in working with the municipalities to accomplish anything of this nature.