RCMP patrolling Vauxhall at a high rate

The Taber/Vauxhall RCMP detachment have been busy in the Vauxhall area over the last several weeks.

In their monthly report submitted to town council for their regular meeting on Oct. 19, the RCMP delegation detailed many of their successes in the town over the month of September.

One item highlighted by town council was the increase of four impaired driving cases in September 2020 compared to zero in 2019.

“We got two impaired in one night in Vauxhall. Actually, one of our members Cst. (James) Korotyszyn got the first impaired and brought him back to Taber and did breath testing with him.

When he was done, he brought him back up to Vauxhall. No sooner than dropping him off, he got number two,” explained Sgt. Gord Yetman. “We’d be foolish to think they aren’t out there. Realistically speaking, a lot of times it boils down to, for us, being in the right place at the right time. On that particular evening, Cst. Korotyszyn happened to be at the right place at the right time. With two of them, we had insufficient evidence to proceed. One was drug-related, and there was no evidence to lay a charge on that one. The other one, we got a report of a vehicle swerving on the road and members went out looking but they couldn’t find it. The other two were from that same night.”

The RCMP also had a large number of active patrols within the town during the month.

“You’ll see that Vauxhall is the most heavily patrolled of all of our areas. To put it into perspective, we did 28 patrols in Barnwell, 12 in Enchant, 32 in Grassy Lake, 10 in Hays, six in Wrentham and 40 patrols of Vauxhall. Our members are up there regularly, but to be honest, when we get called up there for these complaints, there’s nothing going on. Generally what happens is, a person will call in a complaint because they see it and if we’re in that area, it’s easy to get to it. If we have a bit of driving time, a lot of times the behaviour has stopped at that point,” continued Yetman.

“We will keep at those patrols and that’s a number we’ll keep doing, or thereabout. We have a new member arriving in November from the training academy so we’ll bring him on board with that as well.”

Heading into November, the RCMP is expecting more good news.

With the addition of a new member, the detachment is hoping they’ll see a surplus of members throughout the rest of 2020 and potentially into 2021.

“What I have been told is we are getting this new member in November and we currently have an off-member who is sick. When that member returns to operational duties, we’ll be in a surplus situation. The potential exists by the time October of next year rolls around, there’s a slim chance maybe we could be surplus two. Certainly, I don’t put all of my eggs in one basket,” stated Yetman.

“It’s looking quite realis- tic at one surplus going into the new year.”