EDMONTON – If your home is broken into and your valuables stolen, expect to wait a couple of days for police to respond.
“Somebody’s house gets broken into and we’re not able to send a police officer over there for two days,” said Edmonton Police Chief Rod Knecht.
“Obviously, if it was a crime in progress, we’d be there right away. But those kinds of situations where nobody’s in danger and the scene can wait for a couple of days… That’s not what I would want as a citizen and a taxpayer, that the police service takes two days to get to a call.
“I think we’re collectively disappointed in that.”
Knecht made the statement Wednesday in a year-end interview with Global News. He said his force is currently experiencing longer than expected response times.
“We’re under resourced and we’re over tapped,” the police chief said.
READ MORE: 7,849 cases of domestic violence reported to Edmonton police in 2014
Knecht said police are seeing more crime, in a tougher economy, and fewer resources to handle those increases in demand. He said police are also seeing a rise in mental health calls.
He said calls for service are up 13,000 from this time last year.
- 2 teens charged with murder in case of 16-year-old killed outside Halifax mall
- Green Party deputy leader given jail sentence for Fairy Creek old growth protests
- Cars torched, explosions heard in suspected arson in Montreal neighbourhood
- Gas station clerk stabbed several times during violent attack at Ultramar in Montreal
READ MORE: ‘I wish we could do more’: City councillor on Edmonton police budget
Edmonton city council wasn’t able to provide the budget increase police requested.
The province recently made cuts to the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT), which works with local law enforcement on various cases, including drug and child exploitation investigations.
READ MORE: ‘Certain areas aren’t going to be policed as well’: ALERT worried about funding cut
Knecht said city police are not meeting their priority one (when someone is at risk) response time goals. He said EPS might have to alter those targets.
“For priority one calls, our response times are supposed to be seven minutes. We’re not meeting that. We’re meeting that… 65 or 70 per cent of the time.
“That’s not good. When people are distressed they want a police officer right away.”
The police chief said, with that goal, EPS is setting itself up to fail and questions whether that response time goal should be extended to 10 minutes.
The force is now looking at ways to continue to respond to Edmonton’s increasing needs with the same number of officers. Knecht said police will meet with communities in the new year to talk about priorities and expectations.
WATCH: Police Chief Rod Knecht is looking at how an app could help address the growing demand for police services in Edmonton. Emily Mertz explains.
“We want to leverage technology more… get people to report more online. Would we look at shutting down some of our community stations? Perhaps that’s something we will look at.
“We just have to look at different ways to do business.”
One idea the police chief is proposing is to not have officers respond to vehicle collisions where no one is injured. In fact, Knecht is looking into ways the internet could help speed up the reporting process.
“If there’s nobody injured, it’s a small fender bender, we’re looking at putting an app on the system. People can fill in the tombstone data, fill it in, and go to a collision reporting centre.”
He said that change would require a huge communications effort to make sure the public knew what to expect and what they should do in the case of a minor collision.
Knecht stressed a police officer would respond to the scene if the crash involved an alleged impaired driver, severe damage or someone was injured.
“Maybe we’ve got to review exactly what we’re going to be doing out there. There’s got to be give and take here. We just can’t be all things to all people any more.”
The EPS already encourages citizens to report non-emergency crimes, like property damage or theft under $5,000, online using the Edmonton Police Service website.
Comments