By Greg Higgins

City announces more responsibilities for CSOs

Jul 13, 2017 | 4:24 PM

Battlefords RCMP will be able to put a lot more focus into more serious offenses after today’s announcement that Community Safety Officers (CSOs) will be receiving a lot more responsibility.

According to North Battleford Mayor Ryan Bater, CSOs can now respond to theft or mischief under $5,000 that are not in progress and vehicle collisions with no reported injuries.  

The announcement was made outside North Battleford City Hall by Bater, who was joined by Minister of Justice and Attorney General for the Province, Gord Wyant and Commanding Officer of RCMP “F” division, Curtis Zablocki. Even though the official announcement happened today, the new CSO duties have been in place since July 1.

During his address, Bater said Battlefords RCMP responded to cases 3,000 regarding the aforementioned offenses, which accounted for 20 per cent of their calls last year.

“Transferring these low risk occurrences from the RCMP to the CSOs will allow the police the opportunity to deploy more forces towards serious and high risk crimes,” Bater said. “This is an integral part of the community safety strategy the city initiated in early 2014 as we continually rank higher on the crime severity index scale than we would like.”

2023-24 Hardware

AAA Stars celebrate best of season with year-end awards

2h ago

Real Estate

Buying or selling a house? Do your homework first

6h ago

NB council

City approves new land sale on Buhler Bay

6h ago

Bater added the city currently has six CSOs and there is no immediate plan to increase the number, though those talks are happening and will continue.

The mayor asked the community to still call 911 and the RCMP will determine whether to dispatch the CSOs.

greg.higgins@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW