Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Nov 12/99) - A national survey on policing in aboriginal communities made its way to Inuvik last week.

Cpl. Doug Reti is from Old Crow, Yukon, and is currently attached to the Aboriginal Policing Branch of the RCMP out of Ottawa. He arrived in the Delta to help conduct the force's first-ever survey on policing in aboriginal communities.

"We're consulting with the public and the communities to get general themes on performance and our approach to policing," Reti said.

He said he'd be visiting a total of five communities in the territory, asking about areas in which the RCMP can improve its services and how it can help the public get more involved in self-policing their own areas. He said the process can help produce novel ideas like that of a citizen's patrol group being tried in Carcross, Yukon, to counter a rash of drug-related crime.

"It helps put the onus back on the community and shows them that the police can't do everything alone," he said.

Reti said the RCMP felt the changing times warranted a closer examination of how the force is doing its job -- and working together with approaches like restorative justice. He said the survey is not limited to purely aboriginal communities, but to all places, including major cities, where aboriginal people reside.

He said the survey is particulary relevant now in light of self-government negotiations, when aboriginal communities have the potential to form their own police forces and simply drop the RCMP.

"It's just good business to get out there and see how we can best provide service," he said. "It comes down to accountability."

Reti said the RCMP has evolved over the years and is no longer taking a law enforcement approach so much as serving and working with communities. He said co-operation in areas such as reporting impaired driving or bartenders cutting off intoxicated patrons has already had dramatic effects in places like Burnaby, B.C.

The corporal said the force is looking at reviewing the results of the survey in January.