Public safety concerns grow after Rivers Police Service shut down

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Local leaders are worried about public safety and a possible influx of crime after the police force that served the southwestern Manitoba community for more than a century was shuttered.

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“When it comes to policing, visibility is so important and when you don’t have the visibility that’s when crime can move in,” RM of Riverdale Mayor Heather Lamb said. “What we need is a safe community and I’m hoping that’s what RCMP can do for us, but time will tell.”

The Rivers Police Service served the RM of Riverdale, which includes the town of Rivers for the last 111 years, but staffing challenges that began in February, which included several members leaving the force, left Rivers Police without enough officers to service the area’s approximately 2,000 residents.

Lamb said the RM requested the RCMP to provide supplementary coverage while they continued recruitment efforts to restock their police force.

Lamb said they were informed by provincial officials in June that the Blue Hills RCMP would assume responsibility for servicing the RM and that the Rivers Police Service would be dissolved.

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Lamb said they were also told that any efforts to get the Rivers Police up and running again would require a number of steps to be taken, including a provincial review, and the creation of an implementation plan that would detail staffing and resource strategies, and how the service would comply with the upcoming implementation of Manitoba’s Policing Standards.

“There is always a hope for another service, but at the end of the day it’s about costs and how much is the community willing to pay,” she said. “So it’s not completely off the table, but it would be an uphill battle for sure to bring the service back.”

The move adds about 2,000 residents to the Blue Hills RCMP service area, which Lamb says leaves police in the area “stretched very thin.”

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“It’s already a huge spread out area they are servicing and now they’re adding in another 2,000 people, and it’s unsettling for a lot of people out here because when it comes to the top concerns, crime and safety are always at the top of the list,” she said.

Lamb said other leaders in the area are concerned about how stretched local RCMP will be.

Ray Muirhead, the mayor of Carberry, a community also serviced by Blue Hills RCMP, said anxiety about policing and safety in southwestern Manitoba is running high with RCMP now taking on a larger service area in the region.

Muirhead plans to request a meeting with Justice Minister Matt Wiebe and with RCMP officials at next month’s Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) Fall Convention in Winnipeg to voice their concerns.

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“The area RCMP service out here is a huge spread out area, some areas are more than 45 minutes away from each other, and Rivers Police being gone just stretches them out all the more,” Muirhead said.

“And it’s not RCMP’s fault, that’s the hand they were dealt, but they can’t be everywhere at once, and god forbid we have a serious situation in Carberry and they’re looking at 45 minutes just to get here.

“A lot can happen in 45 minutes.”

An emailed statement from Justice Minister Wiebe said the province was left with no other choice but to close down the Rivers Police Service in June, because there was not enough staff to keep it running, and the community needed another force to step in as soon as possible.

“After Riverdale Municipality requested coverage in late March, as the Rivers Police Service had only one remaining constable who left the service by May 2024, we stepped in and ensured Riverdale had RCMP coverage,” Wiebe said.

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“As Minister of Justice, I have a responsibility to ensure communities have access to policing services and I acted swiftly to ensure continuity of these vital services.”

He added he plans to meet with officials to continue discussing policing concerns in southwestern Manitoba.

“I am meeting with my provincial and federal counterparts this week where I am emphasizing the importance of keeping the RCMP allotment in Manitoba fully staffed,” Wiebe said.

“I met with the mayor of Riverdale and have also reached out to meet with the mayor of Carberry to discuss how we can best keep people safe and to hear their communities’ concerns directly.”

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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