Ritchot council members took their official oath of office on November 1 and set right to work in their first public meeting for the new term.

Staff Sargent Guy Landreville made a personal appearance in council chambers to provide an overview of the RM’s crime statistics over the last quarter.

“Everything is looking very good,” Landreville was pleased to report.

Compared to the previous quarter, traffic-related charges and warnings were down. Crimes against property and persons were also down.

As well, Landreville reported on promising headway being made within local policing that should help improve their visibility in the Ritchot region.

Three new members have been added to the St. Pierre detachment, he says, bringing them much closer to full staff again. The new members are still in training, which means they’ll be closely shadowing veteran staff of the detachment for a while. But he says it’s a big step in the right direction.

In the meantime, Landreville has been finding creative ways to take some of the pressure off his RCMP officers by working collaboratively with the Commissionaires, a private company that provides mobile patrol and security services.

Commissionaires have been actively involved in Ritchot for a while now, hired by the RM to run mobile patrols every weekend during the night-time hours.

The St. Pierre RCMP office, too, has been outsourcing some of their responsibilities, such as fingerprinting, to the Commissionaires.

“I spoke to one of the Commissionaires who came to my office a few weeks ago,” Landreville told council. “What they’re trying to do is get involved in more things that can help us out. Like for example, if we have a murder and we have to keep the scene secure, we usually tie up [RCMP] members for that. But the [Commissionaires] can do that now for us, which is a great relief.”

Recently, the Commissionaires have decided to add mental health training to their employees’ skillset.

“If we have someone under arrest under the Mental Health Act that wants to harm themselves, we bring them to a facility like a hospital,” Landreville said. “Most of the time there is no one there to guard that person, so we stay there and it’s not uncommon for us to stay between four to 23 hours. Trying to get members to pick up the relief for that is a big challenge.”

The opportunity to outsource more assignments like this should help free up RCMP time for other things, Landreville noted.

Councillors Jason Bodnarchuk and Janine Boulanger were quick to suggest two locations in their wards that are particularly prone to heavy-footed drivers. Red River Drive through Howden, Boulanger says, is building a reputation as a speedway and needs a greater RCMP presence.

Speeding along Main Street in St. Adolphe has not improved as of late either, especially during the morning and late afternoon commute times.

For Bodnarchuk, this poses exceptional concern when children are boarding and disembarking school buses near the four-way intersection on the north end of town during high traffic times.

“[We’re seeing] a lot more rolling stops,” Bodnarchuk says of commuter traffic at the intersection. “I think the concern is that it’s a tragedy waiting to happen there.”

Landreville noted their concerns and indicated a willingness to deploy patrols to these areas more frequently.

Seeking further solutions to the problem, Mayor Chris Ewen inquired about the feasibility of bringing photo radar to rural areas sometime in the future.

Landreville says he’s not aware of any locations outside of Winnipeg where these systems are in use. There’s a lengthy process to getting that done, he says, which includes creating bylaws and passing them through a variety of provincial channels for approval.

When asked whether the staff sargent anticipated an RCMP detachment in Ritchot’s future, Landreville was able to provide still more optimism.

“Not here,” Landreville replied. “We have [the] Niverville [location] that’s going to open on a municipal contract on April 1.”

According to Landreville, the Niverville satellite office will be located in that community’s town office and will provide workspace for three constables, a corporal, and a staff sergeant.

This new location, he says, should prove to be of real benefit to the residents of Ritchot as well.