The Alberta RCMP is touting the success of new initiatives that are allowing frontline members to dedicate more time to doing patrols and investigations and less time behind a desk, burdened by paperwork.

Today, Alberta RCMP Acting Commanding Officer John Ferguson gave Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley a tour of Alberta RCMP’s new Police Reporting and Occurrence System (PROS) Data Centre. The PROS Data Centre, along with the Division’s new Call Back Unit, are the key elements of the Division’s Call Management Initiative.

Following a police response, the Data Centre enables police officers to simply input information into the RCMP police database by phone. PROS Data Centre civilian staff will then collect the information provided by the member and input appropriately. Prior to this new process, officers would have to travel to the detachment and manually update police files or conduct data entry through their mobile workstation instead of immediately returning to their patrols or investigations.

The NCO of the Call Management Unit Sergeant Barry LaRocque says all RCMP members should be, and want to be, out in the community.

"They need to be out conducting proactive patrols, they need to be engaged in crime reduction initiatives and they just need to be in and around our communities."

The Call Back Unit realizes efficiencies on the front-end. Staffed by experienced RCMP members, the Call Back Unit process diverts non-emergency calls for service that are neither time-sensitive nor pose a threat to public safety to the Call Back Unit instead of frontline members. Call Back Unit members will connect with the caller and take it from there. If further investigation is required on the ground, the police file will be transferred back to the frontline member for follow-up. As before, Alberta RCMP will continue to immediately respond to emergency calls with the highest priority.

LaRocque explains that there are six types of calls that the Unit handles.  "The frauds and scams, some of the minor mischiefs, some of the minor thefts.  Lost property, like lost wallets and things of that sort, historical traffic offenses, where it's not happening at the moment, and any harassing phone calls that don't involve any threats or public safety.  If it meets the criteria, those go to the Call Back Unit and are dealt with at that point."

LaRocque says the two measures are equally valuable for urban and rural detachments and he believes works well for places like Airdrie.

"In some of the smaller urban centres, the Airdries of the world, they're getting quite a good benefit from it because there's plenty of calls that meet that criteria.  So by diverting them to the Call Back Unit and not having a member have to deal with it, I would see that's where the big benefit is.  

Although the Call Back Unit has only been in effect since February and the Data Centre remains in its pilot phase, both Call Management Initiatives are seeing positive results.

  • ·The Call Back Unit diverted and answered 3,853 calls for service which would have previously been dispatched directly to RCMP frontline members.
  • ·These calls realized a savings of 9,390 hours representing nine General Duty Constable’s workload in one year.
  • ·The PROS Data Centre Pilot Project has reduced data entry for participating RCMP frontline members from approximately 30 minutes to 3 minutes and 30 seconds, not including travel time.
  • ·Based on 868 police files entered since the pilot program launched in June, the PROS Data Centre has saved 375 hours of data entry time for RCMP frontline members, not including travel time.

 Quick facts:

  • ·In 2017, the Operational Communications Centre (OCC) received almost 700,000 complaints and 911 calls. A significant number of those calls were non-emergency and did not require police officer attendance.
  • ·The call management initiatives were funded, in part, through the Government of Alberta’s $8 million investment to the RCMP announced in March 2018.

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