EDMONTON- The recent assault of an on-duty RCMP officer, along with a number of officer-involved incidents, has raised questions about officer safety.
In the span of three days earlier this month, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) was contacted three times to investigate three separate incidents.
Some veteran and retired police officers say the world is a more violent place than it used to be, which makes it harder for officers to stay safe on the job.
“It’s become more prevalent as the years go on and society is becoming more violent,” said Bill Clark with the Edmonton Police Association. “who knows what all the reasons are.”
“It’s a totally different way of doing policing today,” said Kees Kikkert with the RCMP Veterans’ Association. “I think society today, there’s less respect, maybe, for the police officer.”
The Edmonton Police Service staffs most of its squad cars with two police officers during afternoon and overnight shifts. However, officers in rural Alberta work in different conditions; generally, officers work alone.
“When you’re an RCMP officer in a rural community all by yourself, boy, your tactics have to be a lot different and people can take advantage of you,” Clark explained. “We disagree with it. We think that the RCMP need to really take these concerns to heart and their management needs to start putting out two-man cars, especially in rural detachments.”
But while the idea of two-person squad cars may be simple, according to Kikkert, the execution isn’t quite as easy.
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“Yes, two to a car absolutely would make a difference. Absolutely make a difference. But I don’t think the resources are there to do it,” he explained. “To say we’re going to have the resources to do that, the provincial government is going to look at you with a little bit of a funny look and say they just don’t have the money to do it.”
So what needs to change? Kikkert says the answer isn’t simple.
“If I could say consequences would help, I’d say maybe more severe consequences, but I’m not sure.”
Alberta’s solicitor general says attitudes need to change.
“I think that if any Albertan runs into any law enforcement officials, there should be two words- thank you,” said Jonathan Denis.
With files from Fletcher Kent, Global News.
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