One of two new trucks to be used by peace officers.
LINDSAY GOSS
Pass Herald Reporter
Crowsnest Pass has recently welcomed two new law enforcers and their headway and work in the municipality is described as very good.
Stephen Jordan-Zerr and Vincent Duguay are the new Peace Officers in the municipality, recently hired by administration. Jordan-Zerr is the Pass’ new Community Peace Officer, (CPO) Sergeant, who is originally from Leduc, and worked in Cold Lake with Alberta Health Services as a Community Peace Officer. He was one of four who applied for the peace officer position when it was advertised and was the successful candidate.
Duguay also worked for the City of Cold Lake as a Community Peace Officer. Duguay is on a term position, in respect to a medical vacancy of a fellow peace officer in the municipality. His term will last between one to three months, with a possible extension.
Director of Community Services Albert Headrick explained that when a peace officer leaves his/her appointment for relocation, it is necessary to be reappointed by the Solicitor General of Alberta.
Zerr currently has his reappointment as a peace officer and Duguay is still awaiting his. Although traditionally, it is not permitted to transfer CPO status, only under certain conditions can this occur.
The process is called (Jurisdictional Peace Officers “who are assigned a temporary jurisdictional change from their Municipality of origin to service the another Municipality through the auspices of a special event or a disaster with jurisdiction, which then terminates at the end of the event. This activity was prevalent in relation to Rum Runner Days whereas we acquired another CPO from another municipality to assist our member.
“It’s a win-win proposition,” explained Headrick. “They can come in, help you out and are short-term. It’s very cost effective.”
Contrary to popular belief, our Peace Officer Program is not new in the municipality. If you go back in history, we had a special constable status in 1989,” Headrick said.
Gary Villemaire was a special constable in 1989, which operated under the Police Act. Special constables had the authority to enforce provincial stat-utes, including writing tickets and charges, and enforce municipality bylaws, he explained.
In 2002, the solicitor general reviewed municipal files and found some deficiencies regarding some of the administration process. After the deficiencies were corrected, a letter of completion was returned to the solicitor.
In May of 2006, the Peace Officer Act was passed and the Community Peace Officer Program was implemented. Crowsnest Special Constable Status was kept until May 1, 2007, where then Cathy Crozier was appointed as a Community Peace Officer by the Solicitor General.
In 2008 another provincial audit was conducted by the Solicitor General which identified 6 areas which required attention and enhancement. Letter was returned to the Sol Gen that all areas were complied with. In 2009 Larry Iutzi was hired as a Community Peace Officer.
A consulting firm was retained in August 2011 to review the program in general and provide future direction in relation to the enhancement of the program and customer service expectations.
Although the program had been inherited, it needed enhancement, in order to provide effective customer service. That is why an additional Peace Officer was hired as a sergeant on the recommendation of the consulting firm, which was correct in their evaluation.
Headrick said, there has been close to 150 complaints between January and end of April of this year. “That is a lot for one individual to manage, besides doing traffic enforcement, municipal bylaws, and other general complaints, It was quite apparent “one person could not handle that amount of work load effectively.
Our new Community Peace Officers are both very conciencence and diplomatic workers,” Headrick said. “I think they are going to fit in the community very well. They know their job, and they know their responsibilities.
