Central Alberta towns studying whether RCMP is their best policing option

Some central Alberta municipalities are looking into whether their current arrangements with the RCMP are the best policing model for them — or if there's a different way.

Bidding recently closed on requests for proposals issued respectively by the Town of Hardisty — on behalf of several nearby communities — and the Town of Rocky Mountain House. The winning consultants will have to deliver thorough studies into the policing framework in the respective jurisdictions.

According to the tender documents, the studies would review their current setups with the RCMP, as well as what it would look like for the town's to create their own municipal police services, or contract other agencies, like the Alberta Sheriffs.

"I'll never bash the RCMP. They're great. They just have very limited resources," said Wayne Jackson, Hardisty's mayor.

"We have such a vast area that our detachment looks after… so it makes rural crime a big issue," he said. "It's frustrating for the citizens, it's frustrating for the officers."

'Everything is on the table'

Rocky Mountain House's tender documents outline a broad scope of work, comparing its current agreement with the RCMP to creating a municipal service and contracting other agencies. Acting mayor Len Phillips said another option could be to blend RCMP with community peace officers already in town.

"Everything is on the table," Phillips said.

Under the municipal police service agreement with the federal government, RCMP service costs the town $2.4 million per year, the town's website says. The detachment in Rocky Mountain House, about 160 kilometres southwest of Edmonton, serves the town and much of the surrounding Clearwater County.

In December, town council approved a 2025 operating budget of just over $28 million — so RCMP service would account for roughly nine per cent of its budget this year.

"This is a large budgetary item," Phillips said. "We need to make sure that the model that we have in place… is the right model and the most efficient model, from a dollar-wise point of view and from a service-providing point of view."

The winning bidder must also engage with the public, research things like the community's background and crime trends, and offer recommendations.

The town expects the study to take about 10 months, its website says.

Study not a dig against RCMP: Jackson

The Town of Hardisty has previously reached out to the provincial government about bolstering law enforcement, and was told to get the policing study done so there is information on paper, Jackson said.

The RCMP detachment in Killam, Alta., a town about 40 kilometres northwest of Hardisty, is responsible for serving the surrounding Flagstaff County and part of the neighbouring municipal district of Provost No. 52. Killam is about 140 kilometres southeast of Edmonton.

"I was born and raised out here. The RCMP are kind of everything to me," Jackson said.

"But if that means, in our particular situation, bringing in [the Alberta] Sheriffs office — anything for support — we're open to that. Anything that helps, to be honest."

In addition to analyzing the current model and the logistics of an alternative framework, the consultant should also develop success metrics to track progress, including community satisfaction rates and incident response times and outcomes, tender documents show.

Grant helping to fund study

In fall 2022, Alberta's Public Safety and Emergency Services Ministry launched the Indigenous and municipal police transition study grant program, which sends money to communities that want to study different municipal policing frameworks.

The ministry has since sent money to 31 municipalities, 21 First Nations and three Métis settlements, according to a statement from Arthur Green, press secretary for Public Safety and Emergency Services Minister Mike Ellis.

The government stopped accepting applications for the grant on March 1. 

The Town of Rocky Mountain House received $60,000 through the grant program for its study, said acting mayor Len Phillips, adding that the town expects that will cover the tab. According to the town's website, the municipality set aside an extra $30,000 in case it costs more.

The towns of Hardisty, Killam and Sedgewick, and the Village of Forestburg, pooled their respective grant funding to conduct their study, Jackson said. According to the tender documents, the towns have allocated a budget of $100,000 to $120,000.

"Back in the day, rural municipalities were kind of standalone, and they relied on their county to deal with," Jackson said. But now, when it comes to things like water systems and services like policing or firefighting, "everyone has to sit down at the table and work it out together."