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

Codiac Regional RCMP plans 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 Codiac Regional Policing Authority's 2019 budget. It will boost Mountie ranks to 144 from 139.

The hiring comes as statistics paint a 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. Tom Critchlow, the commanding officer at Codiac, told Information Morning Moncton.

Codiac received 31,811 calls for service last year, a 22 per cent increase from 2014. And the first half of 2018 showed a 10.5 per cent increase over the first half of 2017.

​Critchlow said he doesn't believe public safety has been at risk.

Meanwhile, Statistics Canada reported this year that Codiac has one of the smallest contingents of officers per capita and one of the biggest groups of officers nearing retirement.

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

In the first half of this year, Codiac reported some shifts failed to meet 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 Léger, a Moncton city 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," Léger said. 

For officers, it can lead to burnout. 

Officers 'overloaded'

L.P. Theriault, who began an unpaid leave from Codiac RCMP two months ago to pursue 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," said Theriault. "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 Mounted Police Professional 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 knows officers who decided to move to other police forces 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 Codiac Regional Policing Authority called for adding eight officers, but only six were added.

The latest hiring will represent a 0.9 per cent increase in the Codiac Regional Policing Authority's $30 million budget. The authority oversees Codiac RCMP and is funded by Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview. 

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