Codiac RCMP to add Mounties as calls rise, shifts fail to meet minimum staffing

Codiac Regional RCMPplans to add 10 front-line officers next year to deal with a growing number of calls and shifts that recently have failed to meet minimum staffing levels, triggering overtime spending.

Five new Mounties will be hired and five administrative positions will be shifted to front-line officer roles as part of the CodiacRegional Policing Authority's2019 budget. It will boost Mountie ranks to 144 from 139.

The hiring comes as statisticspainta picture of a force struggling to keep up with the same number of officers while policing the growing communities of Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview.

"We have to keep up with the demand for those calls for service so we can keep up with our priorities and deliver a safe service for our members,"Supt. TomCritchlow, the commanding officer atCodiac, told Information Morning Moncton.

Codiacreceived 31,811calls for service last year, a 22 per cent increase from2014. And the first half of 2018 showed a 10.5 per cent increase over the first half of 2017.

Critchlowsaid he doesn't believe public safety has been at risk.

Meanwhile, Statistics Canada reported this year that Codiachasone of the smallest contingents of officers per capita andone of the biggest groups of officers nearing retirement.

Data from Statistics Canada also shows the region has a highcrime severity index compared to otherCanadian cities. The index tracks the severity of crime that police report to the federal agency.

In the first half of thisyear, Codiac reported some shifts failed tomeet the minimum staffing levels, requiring officers to work overtime.

In the first three months of the year, 13.5 per cent of shifts failed to meet the minimum level, though that surged to 24.5 per cent between April and July. More recent data is not yet available.

Charles Lger, a Monctoncity councillor and chair of the Codiac Regional Policing Authority, said those figures led directly to hiring more Mounties.

"That really helps augment the front-line officers, the people that the public want to see on the street every day," Lger said.

For officers, it can leadto burnout.

Officers 'overloaded'

L.P. Theriault, whobegan an unpaid leave from CodiacRCMPtwo months agotopursue a law degree, said the volume of calls Mounties answer in the region means sometimes skipping lunch or bathroom breaks.

"Officers are being overloaded and that brings lots of fatigue," saidTheriault. "Officers are tired. They love their job, they love serving the public and doing the best they can, but sometimes the best they can is just not enough because there's not enough members."

Critchlow said there is burnout, but his job is to provide a safe police service and that requires data to show there's a need. He said the data now shows that need.

Theriault, who is also president of the MountedPoliceProfessional Association of Canada which is seeking to represent Mounties as a union,welcomed the hiring.

"I'm glad we're getting more members on the road," he said, adding he knowsofficers who decided tomoveto other policeforces where the pay is sometimes higher and number of calls lower.

About a third of the $1.2 million in overtime paid out last year was to cover staff shortages.

A 2012 report for the CodiacRegional Policing Authority called for adding eight officers, but only six were added.

The latesthiring will representa 0.9 per cent increase in theCodiacRegional Policing Authority's $30 million budget. The authority oversees Codiac RCMP and is funded byMoncton, Dieppe and Riverview.

Asurplus of $2.3 million from 2017 will help fund the first year of the new hires.