A quarter of Codiac RCMP shifts missed minimum staff target

One quarter of Codiac Regional RCMP shifts did not meet a minimum staff threshold last year, despite the force adding more officers to its ranks.

When shifts don't meet the threshold, other Mounties are called in to work overtime or are shifted to frontline roles from other police units like street crime and the general investigations section.

The figures were outlined at a Codiac Regional Policing Authority board meeting on Thursday. The data covers the RCMP fiscal year from April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020. The board provides oversight to the force that policies Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview. 

Irwin Lampert, a retired judge who sits on the board, asked if there's a shortage of officers. 

Charles Savoie, director of strategic planning and policing support services, at first said it wasn't a shortage, but then said "you're right, yes." He said it was tied to the number of people off work on long-term sick leave.

"We have a plan to address that and we hope that will be successful, and we're fairly confident that it will be," Savoie said.

The last two budgets have included money to hire more officers. The number of regular members increased from 143 in 2019 to a projected 157 in 2022.

Supt. Tom Critchlow, commanding officer of Codiac RCMP, said staffing is fluid. He said even as officers arrive to fill those roles, others move out to other detachments, take vacations, go out on training or take parental and sick leave.

Data presented to municipal councils last year indicated an average of about 10.6 members have been off on sick leave over the past two years.

"This is not an office job, not a nine to five job," Critchlow said. "You're dealing with life-altering moments and it affects people in many different ways." 

Critchlow said he doesn't believe public safety has been affected.

Previously, a Mountie told CBC officers were overloaded, resulting in fatigue and burnout. 

Codiac RCMP aims to have only 10 per cent of its shift fail to meet the minimum. But the force has been consistently above that target since it started reporting the figure to the board in 2018.

Between April and July 2019, 36 per cent of shifts weren't meeting the threshold, though the number dropped to 11 per cent in the following three months. 

In 2018, the average number of shifts that didn't meet the minimum was 15 per cent. In a note about the figures presented to the board in 2019, RCMP said the addition of four more regular members and changing roles so five others perform frontline work "will gradually improve this situation in 2019."

Critchlow confirmed that those four positions were filled in 2019, but the average number of shifts that didn't meet the threshold climbed nonetheless to 25 per cent. 

Charles Leger, chair of the authority's board and a Moncton councillor, said the board and the RCMP have responded to the "challenge" by planning to hire more members.

Critchlow said Codiac has had a number of cadets arriving from the Depot training centre who are doing well, which should allow other officers to take time off depending on how the pandemic continues.

He said the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in Depot shutting down temporarily, which could affect staffing in the future.