Yes, I do have some opening comments. Thank you very much for allowing me to speak with you this morning. I'm going to touch again on some of the overarching reasons that we are aware of locally, that have a real impact on policing costs. Some statistics: in the last ten years the RCMP in the city of Brooks has grown from 15 officers to 23. Of course this is due in part to our population growth. Ten years ago we had a population of 11,604, essentially one officer for every 773 people, and currently our population is about 13,676, with one officer for every 547 people. We have not had a significant growth in population, however we have had a fairly significant need for the increase in police officers.
Of course other factors come into play: the sophistication of crimes and definitely labour-intensive systems and time-consuming processes. So many barriers seem to be imposed with regard to the sharing of information. With the safe community initiative and other types of initiatives, the sharing of information is delayed and sometimes doesn't happen due to the legislation around privacy issues, I suppose. Most often the people and organizations that provide that service remain on the periphery due to privacy legislation. The folks who need assistance generally don't get the required assistance in time, so without intervention, the RCMP remain involved.
Our RCMP building is owned by the government, and we recently received notice of a rent increase. In the past the rent has been approximately $130,000 per year, and it's now $245,000. That's a $115,000 jump or 88%. That's really tough on our municipality and other municipalities as well, of course.
We're very fortunate that our local detachment works closely with the city. They provide us with numerous options for levels of service, and we try to balance what those true policing functions entail. That's paramount to understanding minimum policing service levels and ensuring our RCMP are engaging in duties and functions that can only be done by the RCMP and not by others. I have an example of this that we've implemented. I know in some communities the RCMP take on the role of diversity coordinators. In Brooks the city has recognized the need for a diversity coordinator, however we've incorporated this role into an in-house city position that works in partnership or in tandem with RCMP. This initiative allows for the same type of work to be done in our community, however the cost is substantially less.
Currently our RCMP detachment is integrated with numerous services such as ALERT and crime prevention strategies and such. It has become apparent that we would also benefit from a crime prevention coordinator, and of course we're looking for ways to make this happen that speak to efficiencies. Again, is this a true policing function, or can we effectively have a position that would be less costly if this role is held by a person in the community who has a dedicated mandate that is fully understood and supported by the RCMP?
Our community is very diverse. We're known as the City of 100 Hellos. It brings numerous challenges, numerous opportunities, and we're always looking for ways and initiatives that are truly relevant to our community to become more efficient and work with the RCMP to close those gaps.
Thank you.