Re-posting of July 7,2009 Article
Erin Hitchcock - Williams Lake Tribune Published: July 07, 2009 8:00 AM
Williams Lake City Council is expecting its policing budget to rise by 3.7 per cent for the fiscal year of 2010/2011. The increase would equate to an extra $92,000 the City would need to find in next year’s budget. City Council — following a letter from the RCMP requesting a letter of approval in principal for municipal contract policing resource requests — noted Tuesday night that sending the letter of approval is for planning purposes only.
The increase includes a one-time cost for hard body armour, as well as PRIME — Police Records Information Management Environment — operational skills training, and periodic health assessment costs.
The mandatory hard body armour came about following incidents such as the Mayerthorpe and Columbine High School shootings. Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and Hazardous Occurrence Investigating Team had issued reports recommending national enhanced body armour — rifle plates — for all general duty members. Their recommendations were based on Canadian officers being more likely to face the threat of gun fire from a rifle than a handgun. Soft body armour isn’t designed to and won’t stop rifle rounds. Hard body armour is intended to protect officers from bullets primarily fired from long guns, such as rifles. Hard body armour costs $1,000 each. The RCMP will require one per marked vehicle and two per plainclothes vehicle, as well as spares in the detachment for cadets and call outs.
In November 2006, the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General advised that effective Jan. 1, 2007, a $500 per officer user fee for PRIME would be charged for every sworn member in B.C. The user fee may be increased, however, as the full cost analysis of the PRIME user fee hasn’t yet been determined. Therefore, for planning purposes, the RCMP has budgeted $1,000 per sworn member for the financial five-year planning, beginning 2010/11.
The increase would be 5.1 per cent, or $117,000, based on the existing 24 police officers, but that amount would be offset by a decrease in accommodation costs of about $24,000 or 10.6 per cent, compared to the 2009 budget. The accommodation costs represent the City’s shared costs for the building owned by the RCMP. The decrease is due to reduced building repairs and upgrades.
Effective April 1, 2010, the hard body armour requirements will be included in the RCMP’s five-year plan of 2010/11 to 2014/15. Mayor Kerry Cook said the policing budget already accounts for 20 per cent of the City’s operating budget now. “This does have financial impacts for the City,” Cook said. “But we really don’t have any choices in this particular case. This is going to be a huge cost. We’re not alone as a community.”
She said that with the rising costs of local RCMP and policing, it has become a provincial and federal issue. She said resolutions to improve the situation will likely go forward at the Union of B.C. Municipalities and Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Brian Carruthers, acting chief administrative officer, said the current contract between the municipalities and the province, as well as the federal/provincial agreement with the RCMP, expires in 2011. “The UBCM is going to be representing local government with respect to negotiating the agreement between the province and local government,” Carruthers said. “Over the next year, you’re going to see a fair amount of activity happening on that front as UBCM starts to gather information from the municipalities on these kinds of issues.”
But under the current agreement, he said, the City has no choice or control over the additional costs. “This is the way the system works now,” he said, adding that there is a formula that is agreed on as to how costs are calculated, with respect to the cost of members and support, that are built into the existing agreement. Municipalities that contract with Canada for RCMP services share the costs. Since Williams Lake has a population less than 15,000, the City pays 70 per cent. Municipalities with a population greater than 15,000 pay 90 per cent, with Canada picking up the remaining 10 per cent. The total policing cost to the City for the 2009 budget is about $2,366,000.
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Latest piece of body armour in time for 2010 Olympics
At a security conference this week organized by Acklands-Grainger, Vanoc's official safety products supplier, police officers got a look at the newest line of body armour produced by MSA. Pacific Safety and MSA say their entry-level vests, meant at a minimum to stop bullets from street guns, cost $500 to $1,000.
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Mayerthorpe report: RCMP should issue heavier body armour
DATE: Mar 6, 05:54 AM By ROB DRINKWATER
EDMONTON (CP) – A federal report into the slaying of four Alberta RCMP officers is recommending that beefier body armour be issued to members across the province. The report from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada also recommends officers working at night be issued night-vision goggles and have better radio communications, the RCMP said Monday.
Supt. Rick Hanson said body armour has already been handed out in Mayerthorpe, Alta. – the detachment where the four slain officers were based – but further study is needed before the program is expanded. “There is a weight factor . . . it’s very cumbersome, it’s very hot, and it’s very difficult to manoeuvre,” Hanson said at a news conference. “There’s all those issues that are adding to the need to properly research it before a more comprehensive model is developed for equipping the members.”
Hanson said the heavier armour is ceramic and weighs about 18 pounds, which he said is considerably heavier than the lighter armoured vests that officers currently have. He said the heavier armour, which would protect officers from long gun fire, costs between $400 and $600.
The report had only made the issuing of the armour mandatory in Mayerthorpe. Hanson couldn’t provide a timeline for expanding the armour to the rest of the province. “Mayerthorpe’s use of it will be taken into consideration as part of the evaluation process,” Hanson said.Hanson said it is difficult to say whether heavier armour would have helped the officers who were killed in Mayerthorpe, but he said officers are seeing more rifles and long guns in the field.
The RCMP also said night-vision goggles are already in use in some detachments. The force said that while radio communication problems were not an issue during the Mayerthorpe tragedy, officers noticed problems afterward when they were investigating the shootings. “Within the province, radio coverage is a problem, just like cellphone coverage,” Hanson explained.“There are places in the province where radio systems don’t work optimally.”
Known police-hater James Roszko ambushed Constables Peter Schiemann, Brock Myrol, Leo Johnston and Anthony Gordon while they were guarding evidence on his farm. He then killed himself
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