Recent Weapons case files for Prince Rupert RCMP suggest it may be time for a Public Safety update for community

Prince Rupert's current RCMP detachment at the corner of
McBride and Sixth Avenue West

A couple of high profile weapons case reports in recent weeks for the Prince Rupert RCMP should be catching the eye of the city's elected officials and perhaps giving cause to follow up on the oft suggested, but rarely delivered plan for a community update on policing in the community.

As readers of our Northwest Emergency Responders archive for January may have noted, the local detachment faced two calls of note related to weapons over the course of the last 31 days. 

A collection of weapons seized by the Prince Rupert RCMP coming out
of a call for service in early January 2022

The first resulting in the seizure of a significant collection of weapons related to an 11th Avenue East incident, the second a call for assistance for a shots fired call that saw one shot pass through the walls of apartment building Sixth Avenue East and then lodge in the room adjacent.

Both are somewhat startling for residents of the city, not quite used to such things, but more than likely such things are not an unlikely concern, or potential scenario for the local members out on patrol day after day, night after night.

The opportunity for the Detachment to share some background towards that work is something that the Council should pick up the pace of trying to follow up on.

The call for some kind of information sharing between the Detachment and the public was most recently put forward by Councillor Nick Adey, who in September of 2021 suggested some kind of a session to be hosted by City Council where representatives of the detachment would come in to speak to policing issues.

"I wanted to reflect on the fact that up until about I think probably about a year ago, not often, but with some regularity we would get a chance to talk to people from Emergency Services. Whether that's with the Fire Chief, or Paramedics, or the RCMP. 

We haven't really done that for some time and I'm wondering whether it would be appropriate to ask that we, explore the possibility of renewing that. 

 I think particularly, in terms of my own interests, particularly RCMP.  I understand that there has been some transition there in terms of the sort of who's leading that department. 

So I'm not sure whether we're at a point yet where there is somebody we can call in" -- Councillor Nick Adey in September of 2021

Whether that transition in leadership is complete or not has yet to be updated by the City Council.  

But there must be someone over at the Sixth Avenue West detachment who could be available for an overview of policing in the community and to receive some feedback on any concerns locally.

Mr. Adey's suggestion, was one that followed up on a number of previous calls of a similar nature from Councillor Barry Cunningham over the last few years. 

Though with four months having now passed since the suggestion from Councillor Adey it would seem that neither of the Council members has had much success in getting the concept added to a Council Agenda.

The recent month of short Council sessions, where both the January 10th and 28th gatherings had little in the way of topics for discussion would have been a perfect opportunity to start the year off on the right foot when it comes to information sharing.  

But both passed by without much interest it seems in taking the past requests for an RCMP visit to Council to the action file.

Considering the concerning nature of the recent RCMP case files, City Council should move their requests to the top of their list for community engagement and maybe even make it more of a community forum.

That in order to hear both from the RCMP on the challenge for policing that they are finding in the community and what if any resources they may need from the city to tackle them; as well as to hear directly from the public as to where they wish to see police direct their attention.

Beyond any potential get together,  Council might want to suggest to the local detachment to increase the relay of direct information for the community.

Perhaps to follow the lead of both Terrace and Kitimat.

Where a regular report on what the detachment front line officers are dealing with, makes for a more comprehensive review of what's happening in the community.

Kitimat RCMP Weekly Report January 20-26, 2022

Terrace Week in Review January 17-24, 2022

Until then, you can track the work of both the local RCMP members and those from across the Northwest from our Emergency Responders archive page.

Further items of interest on Prince Rupert City Council can be explored here.