RCMP receives $1.6M in provincial funding to tackle gangs and guns

Guns, drugs and gangs will be the focus of two new RCMP crime response teams (CRTs).

On Friday Christine Tell, Saskatchewan's minister of corrections and policing, announced the province would be giving $1.6 million to the RCMP to hire 14 full time officers.

From February to May of this year the RCMP had a CRT working in west-central Saskatchewan to showcase the efficacy and need for the teams. In that period the team made 181 arrests which led to 96 charges. Of those charged 26 were known to be gang members or associates, according to an RCMP news release.

"CRTs will focus on the reduction of rural crime by deploying resources where the greatest need exists," said Tell

The two locations identified as having the greatest needs are Prince Albert and North Battleford.

Assistant commissioner Curtis Zablocki said the teams will be able to redeploy wherever they're needed. He said the focus will be, "on taking drugs, firearms, stolen property, gang members and criminals off our streets and out of our communities." 

CRTs were first deployed on 2017 to Onion Lake, Sask., to target drugs and gang activity in the community. Zablocki said while the team was deployed calls for service were reduced in the area.

However the teams will not specifically be addressing response times in rural communities. Zablocki did say that by having additional officers in the communities it could improve the amount of time it take for an officer to respond to a call, but ultimately that not the objective of the project. 

"At the end of the day, aside from numbers or statistics; such as numbers of arrests or search warrants executed or quantities of drugs or firearms etc. seized it's really about having residents that then feel safe in their homes and in their communities," said Zablocki.

The CRTs are set to be operational by the fall of 2018.