Taber Municipal Police Commission Sept. 26 briefs

Posted on October 26, 2023 by Taber Times

The following are selected briefs of the Sept. 26 meeting of the Taber Municipal Police Commission. 

Sept. 25 Special Meeting

The TMPC held a special meeting in closed session (in camera) in the Dreaddy Room of the Taber Police Station. 

After returning to open session following discussion, the TMPC voted unanimously to accept the Taber Municipal Police Commission 2024-2027 operating and capital budgets as presented, and requested Chair John MacDonald present the budget to town council.

Appointment of Vice-Chair

Initially, Comm. Ferris Zaugg was nominated for the position but declined. Comm. Wendy Chisholm was subsequently nominated and accepted; Chisholm was declared vice chair of the TMPC.

School Resource Officer Report 2022-2023

Chief Graham Abela shared details of the SRO Report. The SRO currently serves 11 schools. It was noted in the minutes, “if the demand continues to grow there may be a need to review the program to build capacity. At this time there was discussion regarding what steps should be taken to review capacity and workload.”

Abela noted that in the future a stakeholder consultation may be required to better examine the need within the community and schools.

Chief Graham Abela’s Report June – August 2023

POLICE

Community Involvement: Taber Police members participated in tent raising at the Clearview Lodge; Taber Police members and our two cadets participated in harvesting vegetables from the community garden; Chief Abela and Inspector Gyepesi played in their band for two Taber festivals this past summer, Cornstock and Cornfest; Cst. Motz participated in the World Police Fire Games in Winnipeg this past summer competing in the Toughest Cop Alive competition. For his weight category, he won a gold medal; Taber Police participated with the Citizens on Patrol with their Lock it or Loose It campaign; Cst. Kitto participated in the Canadian Armed Forces military training exercises with his role as a reservist.

Training: Cst. Brevik, Sgt. Meggison, Cst. Nguyen all participated as assessors at the recruit academy in Lethbridge; two of our officers continue their studies taking university education courses in policing; as part of their learning, WWO cadets from the Lethbridge Police Academy participated on ride alongs with Taber Police members; Cst. Motz received carbine instructor training and is now certified to teach our officers; members of the Taber Police received an advanced firearms investigation training seminar put on by NWEST investigators; members of the Taber Police underwent carbine instruction; Chief Abela attended the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police meetings in Ottawa and received seminars covering topics such as immigration pressures on the police, a review of the mass casualty recommendations from Nova Scotia, and Ukraine refugee impacts in Europe and beyond. As a member of the Human Resources Committee of the CACP, he also spent time meeting with colleagues throughout Canada focusing on police training, learning outcomes, recruitment, and retention of police; 

Personnel: Greg Schnieder was promoted to Senior Constable this past summer; Lexi Brevik was promoted to Senior Constable in early September.

Policy: Insp. Gyepesi continues to sit on the body-worn camera committee that was struck by the Ministry. We have no updates as to timelines nor the willingness for the Province to pay.

COMMUNICATIONS

Personnel: We have hired Vicki Mount as a communications operator. We are welcoming Vicki back as she was a dispatcher for several years with the Taber Police and then moved on to work with the Saanich Police.

Training: Two members of our dispatch team will be attending Critical Incident Stress training in Canmore in November.

August Statistics

The numbers in brackets represent the year-to-date figures for August 2022 for comparative purposes.

Traffic: impaired operation 18 (24); dangerous operation of a motor vehicle 16 (6); traffic collisions 86 (82); other Criminal Code 5 (3), provincial traffic offences 1090 (1069). Liquor Act: 58 (28). Other Criminal Code: 149 (110); offensive weapons 7 (7); corruption/public mischief 7 (3). Drug Enforcement: trafficking 6 (9); possession 6 (13); other 6 (1). Crimes Against a Person: sexual offences 16 (4); robbery/extortion/harassment/threats 46 (43); kidnapping/hostage/abduction 0 (3); assaults 48 (43). Crimes Against Property: theft under $5,000 112 (75); theft over $5,000 16 (14); fraud 38 (19); break and enter 39 (34); mischief 64 (55). Bylaw: traffic 17 (5); non-traffic calls 444 (358). 

“In communication with other Chiefs of Police, similar trends have occurred in the province,” said Abela in his written analysis of the statistics. “We are seeing an increase in the number of perpetrators not stopping for police. This creates a dangerous driving report and, as such, we have an increase.”