Jasper Municipal Council wants more information before allowing community peace officers to conduct moving traffic enforcement within municipal limits.
Christine Nadon, director of Protective and Legislative Services, presented on this proposal during Tuesday’s committee of the whole meeting.
“What we’re proposing is not that moving traffic enforcement would become the focus of the department but that it’d be integrated into the patrols,” Nadon said.
“So, our staff are out and about in the community, see those violations and those who are certified as Peace Officer Level 1s technically could enforce those or are trained to enforce those but currently can’t, so changing our service level and updating our designations would allow us to address them as we see them.”
The Jasper Bylaw Enforcement Service currently has four-and-a-half full-time, year-round positions including two community peace officers (CPOs).
Although the municipality had historically employed Level 2 CPOs, who were not authorized to enforce moving traffic violations, the province has since required that all peace officers in Alberta obtain a Level 1 designation.
The municipality has complied with this directive and obtained its designation as a Peace Officer Level 1 employer in spring 2022.
“So, if a change in service level was approved, we would have to update our designation with the province as well as change our internal procedures,” Nadon said.
Administration stated that moving traffic enforcement would not involve specific quotas or expectations per officer to meet.
Peace officers would instead focus day-to-day enforcement on violations causing a risk to public safety, including those involving stop signs and crosswalks.
Municipal staff would also be better able to partner with the RCMP on specific enforcement initiatives, namely speed limits, as the program develops.
Coun. Scott Wilson asked if the bylaw department was appropriately staffed to take on these additional responsibilities.
Nadon replied that this change in service level would increase the scope of responsibility for peace officers but not necessarily the workload and that it would ultimately give them the tools to deal with violations they are already coming across.
CAO Bill Given noted that local RCMP were stretched and needed to focus on more pressing community concerns.
“Really, this is about council providing authorization for employees that currently have the training to start exercising those authorities,” Given said.
He added that this change would help the municipality recruit peace officers who would want to utilize all their training.
The change would also not cost extra at this time, although equipment would be required to fully implement speed limit enforcement in the future.
Half of the revenue generated from provincial tickets issued for moving traffic violations would go to the municipality, but administration was not able to provide an estimate on how much this would be.
Wilson voiced skepticism about the proposal, saying the municipality was already paying the RCMP to provide this service and that this change would download the responsibility onto the municipality.
Mayor Richard Ireland said he would like to see a more detailed outline of the proposal before approving it.
Committee directed administration to return to a future meeting with additional information.
