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• Benefits

  Research and review undertaken by the City, including the Police Services Model Review and the Police Transition Report recognized several benefits associated with a municipal police service model for Grande Prairie, including:

  • increased local oversight, accountability and efficiency offered through a local police commission and local decision-making autonomy.
  • improved officer recruitment based on local candidate development and in-community police recruit training offered through a partnership with a leading academic provider.
  • increased officer retention based on officers having stronger community ties.
  • increased City control over cost elements and ability to more readily direct costs with increased detail than is available today.
  • reduced community policing costs, estimated to be less than what is expected under continued RCMP contract policing
  • enhanced public safety infrastructure through local development of:
    • an Integrated Public Safety Communications Centre (Dispatch)
    • a public safety Real Time Operations Centre (24-hour staffing)
    • new specialized policing capability in the form of a local Emergency Response Team (Tactical)

  Below is a table that demonstrates RCMP vs. Municipal Police Service Comparisons:

  Service Comparisons	RCMP	Municipal
  Local Forensic Identification Section	Yes	Yes
  Local Police Dog Services	Yes	Yes
  Local Emergency Response Team (Tactical)	No	Yes
  Local Police Dispatch	No	Yes
  Local Major Crimes Section	No	Yes
  Access to Provincial Specialized Policing	Yes	Yes
  Access to National Police Information Data	Yes	Yes
  Extensive 26-Week Recruit Training	Yes	Yes
  Limited Legal Liability	Yes	No
  Local Recruitment Incentives	No	Yes
  Local Decision Making	No	Yes

  Note: Service levels are projected to exceed that of the current state through enhanced local capacity and continued access to provincial specialized services (if necessary).

• Funding

  The City of Grande Prairie successfully advocated for and received $9.7 million in start-up and transition funding from the Province of Alberta. The total costs to transition from the RCMP to a municipal police service are estimated to be $19 million and include a 20% contingency, transitional staffing, policing equipment, fleet assets, technology, infrastructure, recruitment, training, and professional services.

  Below are a table that demonstrate RCMP vs. Municipal Police Service Costs:

  Over/Under Comparison of Key Annual Expenditures	RCMP Costs More Expensive	Municipal Costs More Expensive
  Police Officer Compensation	---	+ $1,292,889
  Civilian Staff Compensation	---	+ $999,304
  RCMP Divisional Administration *	+ $3,770,488	---
  Police Technology	---	+ $1,004,257
  RCMP Indirect Expenditures **	+ $758,266	---
  Police Vehicles	---	+ $63,800
  Police Operational Equipment	---	+ $59,400
  Additional Legal and Insurance	---	+ $274,205

  Note: Detailed third-party financial analysis projects annual net policing costs of the municipal police to be $31,515,072 vs. $32,295,040 for the RCMP.

  The difference of $780,000 remains available for investment into police and public safety inititative.

   

• Public Consultation

  Public consultation for the Police Service Model Review consisted of stakeholder interviews with 19 internal and external parties, an online survey with 758 responses, and two in-person consultation sessions with approximately 88 attendees, focus groups, and presentations.

  Key themes from the public consultation include:

  • Current police are viewed as a net positive
  • Policing needs to meet the needs of equity deserving groups
  • RCMP are sometimes perceived to be bureaucratic
  • General desire for a localized approach to policing
  • Policing needs to better understand and incorporate the effect of social factors into their operations