Niverville Town Council has decided to go with a hybrid policing strategy after reviewing an extensive police study conducted by Former Winkler Police Chief Rick Hiebert.

The Town of Niverville commissioned the police study in May 2018 in an effort to get a higher level of police presence. Mayor Myron Dyck says the report laid out what would need to be done to create and operate a stand-alone municipal police force and also laid out recommendations for the town if they decided to stick with RCMP services.

Dyck says after reviewing the study, council has decided to retain RCMP service but augment that service with stronger municipal support. He notes council believes the RCMP have been doing a good job with higher priority offenses but through this report, they have identified lower priority police work such as dealing with public education, surveillance, theft, and traffic violations local priorities.


"We really appreciate the RCMP and all that they do, at the same time their priorities are what they are and someone going through a stop sign isn't as high a priority but to the residents of Niverville, that is a priority and we want to listen to them and see that it gets dealt with."

Dyck says to assist with lower priority policing, council has put a plan in place to add to its security camera program, seek an employee or employees to monitor these cameras in real time during night hours, extend the role of bylaw enforcement, and implement Community Safety Officers.

Dyck notes council has also met with the Department of Justice to request bylaw officers receive the authority to deal with Highway Traffic Act Violations by issuing tickets and give Community Safety Officers more power.

The RCMP satellite office in Niverville"The community safety officers program, the province recently enhanced the scope of what these individuals can do and we would like to see them take it even one more step so that if they see suspicious vehicles, they can stop that vehicle especially at night. If that means extra training, if that means extra cost, we are prepared to participate in that but we would like to see enhanced authority."

The Police Act is amended every five years and Dyck says council would like to see these changes in the 2020 release by the province. He notes some other provinces are already going this direction and if Manitoba follows suit, Niverville would consider hiring a full-time bylaw officer.

Dyck says this hybrid model that includes both RCMP and municipal support is far more cost-effective than a stand-alone municipal police force.

"If you are paying for a municipal police force, now you are paying for the entire gambit of police work so they would be trained to handle all things and we are saying 'The RCMP are doing an adequate job of handling the higher things on their priority level of policing,’ and so why pay the municipal police force wage that has all this training when what you really need is less than that."

The policy study conducted by Rick Hiebert projects the startup cost of a municipal police force would be $477,100 or $227 per residential equivalency unit in addition to an annual operating cost of $575,100 or $274 per residential equivalency unit.

Meanwhile, the startup cost of hiring a community safety officer would be $62,500 or $29 per residential equivalency unit with an annual operating cost of $58,000 or $28 per residential equivalency unit.

Dyck says this new policing policy will be reviewed by council annually.

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