The RCMP says it does not have the resources to put an officer in Tsiigehtchic and would not even if it did
Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services
Tsiigehtchic (May 14/01) - The hamlet of Tsiigehtchic is petitioning to have a police officer based in the small community but the RCMP said that will not happen.
"It is a non-issue," said G division superintendent Terry Elliott, who oversees criminal operations in the NWT out of Yellowknife.
"I don't blame the community because everyone wants a police officer but they don't understand...We are not going to re-visit it."
Elliott said resources for RCMP personnel in the NWT are already stretched to the limit. Adding another one-person detachment to the territory's current list of three will only build a bigger problem.
Holman, Wha Ti and Paulatuk operate with only one officer and the RCMP wants to eliminate all of the single person detachments in the territory.
"We have to put our resources where they are needed most and do not have the luxury of someone sitting there doing nothing," Elliott said.
Tsiigehtchic has a community constable, a low case load and it would cost about $500,000 a year to put an officer there, Elliot said.
Mickey Andre, Tsiigehtchic's community constable, disagrees. He has been training for a year as a police aide, but is not comfortable working alone either.
Andre felt that impact the hardest not long ago when a man shot himself.
"I was not equipped to go in there myself," he said.
"There are lots of occasions I needed the RCMP to give me a hand but they are not here until an hour later...Sometimes I feel like giving up on them."
The quiet hamlet of 190 residents is policed out of Fort McPherson, less than 100 kilometres away. There are about 30 criminal code offenses a year in Tsiigehtchic, compared to Yellowknife where officers deal with about 200 offences each.
For brief periods during break up and freeze up road access is cut off, but Elliott said he would not hestitate to use a helicopter to answer an emergency.
"The town is vulnerable during those times," said hamlet SAO Colum McCready. "We want a police officer and there is a lot of foot-dragging at the higher level."
McCready said two 40-person work crews will be located about 100 kilometres away from Tsiigehtchic this winter when oil and gas drilling starts again. That would more than double the population if they were all to filter through town.
"We are the same as all the other communities and our incidents of crime are increasing," he said.
McCready said that he is concerned with smuggling of drugs and alcohol into the dry community.
"We have no way of dealing with that,"he said.
The community constable agrees. Andre said if the money can not be found to put a police officer in his town then there should at least be another community constable.
"I'm here alone all the time," Andre said. "My phone is ringing off the hook."
