Town finds Community Peace Officers rank
By Stephen Dafoe
Morinville – Community Police Officers (CPO) working in Morinville will now have a pecking order. Council gave final reading to a new bylaw that establishes the rank of sergeant and adds supervisory duties to the rank.
As a designated employer of CPOs, Morinville has the authority from the Alberta Solicitor General to establish ranks among its officers. The Town currently employs two full-time CPOs.
The new bylaw replaces one that dates back to 1994 that was now largely outdated document. The bylaw had first come before Council Aug. 28 but failed to get unanimous support to go to third and final reading the same evening.
The change in rank will not affect the 2012 budget and Administration has said the ranking designation will not affect future budgets. Any increases in Community Peace Officer Sergeant James Alaeddine’s salary would come through the regular performance assessment cycle as with any other employee.
Morinville’s CPOs are required to identify themselves as CPOs whenever they are dealing with the public.
We have two CPO’s and we need to distinguish the two with rank? The one officer does not know that the other is their superior?
The public surely is not going to care if someone is a sergeant or not. A ticket is still a ticket. Their authority is the same too.
I understand the potential need to have a rank structure for some time in the future, when we have several officers but I see no need to have one of only two ranked higher than the other.
All rank structures have different pay rates for different rank levels.
With added responsibility comes more pay.
It WILL cost more.
I agree with Joe. This definitely will cost more money as it is a promotion, however, at this time we do not need a hierarchy with just two CPO’s! I would have preferred someone with a little more experience put in that position like an ex policeman / sherriff etc. Both of our CPO’s are young and relatively inexperienced. To promote one into a supervisory positon is just a waste of taxpayer dollars! Better yet, keep both as CPO’s and hire more RCMP for our community. CPO’s are being put into more and more dangerous areas where they have neither the training nor the equipment to do the job. Leave the CPO’s to carry on with bylaw enforcement / animal control etc and leave the rest to the police, who always used to handle it in the past.
Leave your response!