Pubdate: Wed, 14 Jun 2000 Source: Fort McMurray Today (CN AB) Copyright: 2000 Fort McMurray Today Contact: 8550 Franklin Ave., P.O. Bag 4008, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada T9H 3G1 Fax: (780) 790-1006 Website: http://www.bowesnet.com/today/ Author: Rob Petkau MORE COPS TO HIT THE STREETS It's all but a certainty that Fort McMurray's RCMP detachment will have another traffic cop and drug enforcement officer sometime next year. Regional council decided Tuesday to ask Canada's solicitor general to provide two new constables to the oilsands city, and the top cop in the region says these kinds of requests are almost never denied. "The solicitor general grants the request, and the (municipality) has one year to fill the positions," Insp. Paul McLennan told Today. He said in his four years as detachment boss he's put together a plan to handle the region's growth, using technology like photo radar and portable computers in police cruisers. "The detachment is coping.... There are two areas, however, that continue to exert pressure on available resources," McLennan wrote in a memo to council. "Increasing traffic within the city is putting more demands on the two-member traffic unit and that unit requires additional resources. ...Fort McMurray is an ideal target for the drug trade and the problem is increasing." He pointed to similar-sized Alberta cities' detachments as examples of how more resources are needed in the two areas here. Grande Prairie's traffic unit has four members, while McMurray's has two. Red Deer has four drug cops, compared with the oilsands city's two. McLennan had originally estimated the two officers would cost the municipality an extra $160,000, but he's still crunching numbers. If the actual per-year cost is more than the budgeted amount, he'll arrange for the new members to start later in the year, he said. Council's decision to ask the feds for the officers was unanimous and without discussion. - --- MAP posted-by: Eric Ernst