SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
An increased community presence is among the RCMP's top priorities under the leadership of new detachment commander Insp. Matt Peggs.

The Yellowknife RCMP's new detachment commander Insp. Matt Peggs arrived in the Territory in July and has been working in his new capacity since the end of August. - James Goldie/NNSL photo

In September, Peggs, who took over as the city's top cop when Insp. Frank Gallagher retired, told Yellowknifer it was too early for him to specify what his policing objectives would be.

At the time he said he was still in consultation with elected representatives in Yellowknife, Ndilo and Dettah about what their communities would like to see as law and order priorities.

Now that consultative period has wrapped up.

"The areas of concern that have been addressed by the communities, and certainly that we intend to work on, would be areas of drug trafficking and any sort of illegal alcohol sales as well as things like impaired driving," he said. "We're also going to be contributing to public safety through proactive enforcement initiatives and also by trying to increase our visibility in the communities that we serve."

Proactive enforcement initiatives refer to operations planned in advance by the RCMP, such as traffic checks to find intoxicated drivers. Although he said the force would "also be doing proactive things to address drug trafficking and illegal alcohol sales," Peggs said he could not reveal any details that would indicate what these activities might look like.

In an effort to boost RCMP visibility in Yellowknife, Peggs said he has increased the number of foot patrols in the city's core. The RCMP has conducted 44 foot patrols since mid-September.

"We'll take a couple members and we'll spend one to two hours walking through downtown, through the malls. I've been down there myself," he said. "We've been getting very positive comments from the public who like to see us out there. So that's definitely something we're going to continue doing."

In order to address common downtown issues, such as public drunkenness, Peggs said the RCMP is developing a long-term strategy.

"The problem is not going to be solved through police actions and arrests alone," he said. "With respect to that matter downtown, I'm committed to working with other partner agencies strategically to find solutions to that problem. Not through arrests. Going to jail is not the solution to this problem."

Peggs said he has been in talks with the Salvation Army, the City of Yellowknife and "other government agencies" about just what that solution looks like.

He said while some criminal matters can only be dealt with by the RCMP, other problems - such as domestic violence or elder abuse - will take a joint effort between police, government and civil society organizations.

"We can provide community policing presentations and things like that but certainly we need the assistance of the communities to promote those events, to help us out with venues and advertising and things like that," he said.

"That to me is community policing."

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