A group of citizens in Niverville wants the town to study if Niverville, which is currently serviced by the RCMP detachment in St. Pierre-Joly, should get its own police force.
More than 530 people have signed a petition calling for a feasibility study since the petition began circulating three weeks ago.
The petition claims property crime rates went up in the first quarter this year (something the RCMP is working to provide CTV with stats), and town council has stated they only plan to re-evaluate the town’s police services in 2021, despite the town’s trajectory to pass 5000 people.
Tuesday night, its authors will present their case to Niverville’s town council.
“We’ve had people being attacked with machetes, people being stabbed with screwdrivers. We honestly believe that more than what’s currently going on could happen. And right now town council has said several times they have no intention of doing anything until the year 2021 when the next census is done,” Lindsay Unrau, a mother of four who is one of the people behind the petition.
“The problems are getting worse. We want to encourage council that residents are concerned about what’s going on and want to see more done,” Unrau said.
According to Niverville Mayor Dyck, the town pays a contract fee about $200,000 annually for RCMP service by the St. Pierre-Joly RCMP.
According to the Statistics Canada, the town’s population jumped more than 1000 people in five years. That’s significant, given its 2016 population was 4,610 people.
Niverville mayor Myron Dyck agreed the community, and southeast Manitoba, did see a spike in property crime this winter. But, he rejects the claim council is has no intention of doing anything until 2021.
“That is absolutely false. What I did say is because we are not at 5,000 population, council does not need to do anything prior to the 2021 census but council does look at policing every year,” Dyck said.
Dyck said council held an open house in October where citizens were asked to weigh-in on if RCMP should enter a direct contract for the RCMP, or develop a municipal police force similar to Altona or Winkler, or develop a regional police force if there are municipalities in the area interested in joining them.
“We have this petition coming forward tonight where they say council isn’t prepared to do anything. I appreciate citizens being passionate about a topic, taking time out of their lives to bring awareness about a situation to council,” Dyck said. “Having said that, council is looking into this and they wish to have a study done. We do need to have a plan going forward on how we’re going to do policing.”
In a statement provided to CTV News, an RCMP spokesperson said, “RCMP are confident in the resources we have in place to police the community of Niverville and keep residents safe. We continue to work closely in partnership with town council to look at crime prevention strategies.”
Eleven other communities in Manitoba have their own municipal police services, including Winkler, Altona and Ste. Anne.
