Guy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Friday, May 25, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - He's only been here for nine weeks, and was sworn in to his position just two weeks ago, but the new commanding officer of RCMP forces in the NWT says he can't help but notice a big problem in Yellowknife.

"It's pretty apparent that a certain portion of the population has an alcohol problem," said Chief Supt. Tom A. Middleton last week, sitting at his desk in his office at RCMP G Division headquarters.

"It's less visible, but I'm sure there's another portion of the population that has a drug abuse problem. Substance abuse is really at the core of a lot of the problems we have. So much stuff spins out of that - break and enters, motor vehicle accidents."

The best way to curb such problems, he said, is to continue the RCMP's Crime Reduction Strategy, a local effort spearheaded by Insp. Roch Fortin that integrates the activities of the RCMP, the Salvation Army, the courts and the corrections system in order to prevent offenders from repeatedly clogging up the court system.

Middleton has been encouraged by the progress shown by similar programs in other communities.

"We're seeing general crime rates drop as much as 30 per cent in some communities," he said. "That's because we're focusing on the root causes of why they're committing crime. We do the proper work-up on them. We work with Crown to show the history of the person, to show how many times we've dealt with them. We recommend to the court that we have to do some serious intervention or they will just keep coming through the revolving door."

The RCMP recently released unofficial statistics indicating that some categories of crime in Yellowknife, including assaults, break and enters and sexual assaults, have gone down in the last two years.

Middleton said he chose to come to Yellowknife because he believes the community's small size has innate policing advantages.

"You get to know the area lot better, the people," he said. "Not just the people you come to know as suspects, but the business people. And it's so much easier when you know the people in town. That doesn't happen in the big centres."

Middleton began his career working as a park ranger in Manitoba. During nighttime patrols of campgrounds, the RCMP officers he worked alongside encouraged him to join the force.

"'If I was young and I was you, I'd go,'" they said. "So I went," said Middleton. He served in British Columbia for 17 years.

As for his time off-duty, Middleton said he's looking forward to outdoor activities such as fishing.