Cochrane’s booming growth has drawn considerable attention in regards to infrastructure pressures – most notably traffic congestion.
Since 2011 the town’s population has jumped by 50 per cent or nearly 10,000 people, resulting in the need for more recreation facilities, road improvements and calls from residents for a slowdown in development.
While focus has centred on community amenities, service levels have flown under the radar, most notably in the area of policing.
In 2009, policing levels in the Town of Cochrane were 896 residents per officer – there were 17 officers at that time.
Each year, that ratio has worsened as our population continues to balloon. This year, despite adding three more RCMP members to the Cochrane detachment since 2009, the ratio sits at 1,300 residents per officer.
On average, policing levels in Canada are around one officer for every 746 residents, nearly half our current service levels.
Despite the population rapidly outgrowing our policing capacity, the RCMP here have done an exemplary job keeping crime in check. The latest policing report presented to council showed a drop in property crime and person crimes.
That is even more impressive considering those policing levels do not reflect population numbers for Bragg Creek, Bearspaw, the Cochrane detachment’s portion of Rocky View County or Morley.
Those considerations, according to the RCMP, make Cochrane one of the busiest detachments in the province. It’s not just patrols and investigations adding to the pressure either, support staff are run ragged trying to keep up with administrative duties such as criminal record checks.
To put policing capacity back at 2009 levels, Cochrane would need 31 officers – 11 more than we currently have. That would still put us three short of the Canadian average.
A few weeks ago, Cochrane RCMP asked the Town of Cochrane for two more positions to allow the detachment to implement a crime reduction unit.
The new positions would allow the detachment to focus on the elements of the population responsible for the majority of the crime.
Considering the town’s growth and our current ratio of police to population, two more officers is not an unreasonable request. In fact, it is a far cry from the number of officers Cochrane needs.
As the county and the town prepare for new developments – accounting for upwards of 20,000 additional people – more policing is sorely needed and the two new requested officers should be just the beginning.
