Police appease council with 4-yr plan

By Jeremy Appel on September 27, 2018.

jappel@medicinehatnews.com @MHNJeremyAppel

The Medicine Hat Police Service has released its inaugural four-year strategic business plan.

Previously, strategic plan were released in two-year increments, and annually before that, but MHPS has made the extension at the urging of council.

“It’s a crapshoot to say the least, but I understand there’s probably a need for council to get a hand on what’s happening during their term, which is totally understandable,” police chief Andy McGrogan said.

Still, he added, it’s tricky to project costs four years into the future, particularly with the possibility of changing provincial governments and their priorities every four years.

“Four years ago, if someone would have said ‘opioid crisis’ or ‘legalization of marijuana’ or ‘supervised consumption sites’ … you would have thought they were talking a different language,” McGrogan said.

Although the force has been reduced to 113 members from a peak of 116 in 2010, McGrogan says the force “can still adequately police the city with the number that we have.”

Positions eliminated in the past eight years were a result of reductions in provincial grants, but in the same timespan, MHPS hired more people in IT, legal, the collision reporting centre and other areas.

“What we’ve done is reinforce the civilian side of our business in order to support our police officers,” McGrogan said. “That has made a big difference and allowed us to basically continue to police with the same number of people.”

In the decade he’s been chief, McGrogan says the force has never gone to council to request more money for staffing.

Meth seizures spike between 2016-17

The plan shows that while cocaine was the top drug seized by police in 2014, 2015 and 2016, methamphetamine seizures drastically increased in the past year.

There were 3,846 grams of meth confiscated last year, compared with 1,121 grams of cocaine.

In 2016, 2,674 grams of cocaine were seized compared with 1,474 grams of meth.

McGrogan says this isn’t necessarily because more people are doing meth than cocaine, but that police have stepped up their enforcement of meth.

“It’s a more addictive drug and it’s cheaper,” he said. “There’s a lot of cocaine out there still being dealt, but of course we go to the hot issue and the meth is causing us more social issues than cocaine is.”

Although the numbers don’t appear that way, police are also stepping up fentanyl seizures, given the opioid crisis gripping Western Canada.

DNA analysis costs

According to the plan, Alberta is the highest user of DNA analysis in the country, which McGrogan says is putting a strain on budgets.

“Our province is saying, ‘Hey. You guys are killing us here. This costs a lot of money. We’re paying for it and we need to find another model,'” he said.

“We either have to take less samples, which means probably solving less crime, or we have to start paying for it municipally and through other means.”

If the province were to cease funding DNA analysis, McGrogan said it would cost the city about $100,000 a year.

He clarified he doesn’t blame the province, as DNA analysis is costly.

Police to use body, car cameras in limited capacity

Late last year, the MHPS initiated a year-long pilot project for body-worn and in-car cameras for officers.

McGrogan says they will continue to use the cameras in a limited capacity for the foreseeable future, citing privacy and cost concerns.

“We have an obligation as a public body to take information, store it properly and then redact it appropriately,” he said. “I don’t know if the municipality is ready to afford that right now. We’re trying to find a soft landing point where we can stay with the technology and use it.”

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