Constable Jesse Morrison recently joined the Crowsnest Pass RCMP, replacing Constable Lorne Gopp, who transferred to Pincher Creek in December.
Morrison, who has lived in several communities all over the province, said when the opportunity arose to transfer to the Crowsnest Pass, it was his first choice.
“There is nowhere else in Alberta where you are in the mountains, but still close to major city centres, and also so close to the States, but the cost of living is still relatively cheap,” said Morrison, who moved to Blairmore on December 4th and began his first shift on December 19th.
Morrison spent the first five years of his RCMP career policing reserve communities in central and northern Alberta.
His first post was a two-year stint in Hobbema , a community 80 kilometres northeast of Red Deer, which straddles four First Nations reserves: the Ermineskin Cree Nation, Samson Cree Nation, Louis Bull Tribe, and Montana First Nation reservations.
The community has received an onslaught of attention from the media over the past few years, as a result of issues with illegal activity and gang violence.
In April 2008, a two-year-old was critically injured by a teenage gunman in a drive-by shooting, and police are constantly responding to reports of illegal.

"I've never lived anywhere like the Crowsnest Pass"

- Constable Jesse Morrison

possession of weapons, drug and tobacco busts, and other incidents and violent crimes. “Hobbema was kind of a double edged sword,” said Morrison. “I was always super busy, and it was very exciting to work in that kind of environment, but the violence in Hobbema was probably the worst part.”
He said there is more of a reactive policing response in Hobbema, with high call volumes and a lot of serious cases.
After Hobbema, he was transferred to Fort Chipewyan, a hamlet 223 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, approximately 200 kilometres south of the Alberta-Northwest Territories border, and just on the east edge of Wood Buffalo National Park.
“Fort Chip was a somewhat slower pace,” said Morrison, who spent three years in the community. “We did get some serious calls, but they were more sporadic. We usually only got one per week to once a month.”
He said the community was very supportive of its law enforcement, but that it was difficult to have anonymity there, as he was on a first-name-basis with almost everyone in the community.
He added that it was also very hard to deal with the isolation at first.
There are no all-weather roads in Fort Chipewyan, and during the winter months, the community can only be accessed by air or by ice roads from Fort McMurray and Fort Smith, NWT.