Altona's Chief of Police is looking back on another positive year for the local law enforcement agency.

In his 2018 annual report, Chief Perry Batchelor highlighted numerous training opportunities that were presented to members of the Altona Police Service (APS) in the past year.

"Of course we were dealing with the legalization of cannabis for much of 2018," he explained, adding this process involved training and equipment upgrades. "We tried to stay on top of all that."

As a result, 5 officers are now trained in the Standard Field Sobriety Test (SFST) and 1 in the use of the Drager 5000, an instrument used to detect cannabis or cocaine in the system.

Batchelor also attended the Canadian Chiefs of Police annual conference in Halifax, NS where cannabis legalization was discussed, along with cyber currency and the most recent Internet scams.

Additionally, members of APS dealt with significant changes in the legislative process, in particular, the overhaul of the Summary Convictions Act now known as the Provincial Offences Act. The change established a one-year timeline for the start of prosecution of provincial offences and set the maximum penalty for these crimes at $5,000.

"It was a total re-write and a bit of a learning curve there as well for police," commented Batchelor.

Currently, officers are working toward the full implementation of the Manitoba By-Law Enforcement Act which aims to keep some cases out of court by giving municipalities the ability to process and resolve parking violations and other by-law infractions through administrative penalties.

The Altona Police Service was also able to beef some of its equipment and technology thanks to continued support from the Criminal Property Forfeiture Fund (CPFF) in 2018. Through the provincial grant, money garnered from crime-related offences and convictions is passed on to police agencies in order to offset the cost of equipment upgrades.

Batchelor says the agency was fortunate to use a $21,643 grant to purchase new state-of-the-art recording equipment for both of its interview rooms.

An additional $17,000 was doled out to help APS join other municipal and RCMP police agencies in a one-year pilot project of the Health IM mental health assessment software. The project has yet to launch in the area.

Overall, Batchelor says crime statistics registered by APS in 2018 were essentially unchanged from the year before. There were however some trends that stood out in the report.

In particular, was a 1,600 % decrease in sexual assault cases from nearly 35 in 2017 to less than 5 in 2018. There was also a 60% drop in other assault files.

Additionally, drug charges were down 20%.

"It's one of those things were some hard work the year before may have taken care of a few of our drug problems in the community," said Batchelor, noting however officers are aware of the issues that remain. "We're not foolish and we know we're not immune. We've still got meth, fentanyl, and cannabis being illegally sold in the community. We will continue to work towards putting an end to that."

Meantime, impaired driving-related offences registered a 125% increase in the past year. Batchelor credits the bump, in part, to increased enforcement through the MPI Road Watch program.

One official complaint was lodged against the agency in 2018 stemming from an alleged incident that happened in 2015. The Independent Investigations Unit continues to investigate.

The Altona Police Service boasted another balanced budget for 2018, registered no personnel changes, and continued public relations work through annual bike rodeos in Altona and Plum Coulee. 

Click here to view the full 2018 annual report.

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