St. Paul council wants to bring the local RCMP detachment commander to a future meeting as it begins work on setting new community policing priorities.

The discussion followed council receiving correspondence from the local detachment requesting municipal input on the priorities plan.

Administration recommended inviting Staff Sergeant Drew to a future Committee of the Whole meeting so council can review local policing trends, discuss community concerns and help shape where enforcement attention should go next.

Council supported that direction and passed a motion to invite him to an upcoming meeting.

Mayor Glenn Andersen said he would also like to see some form of public input eventually, though he cautioned that it would need to be done respectfully and constructively.

“We should be able to ask the residents of St. Paul for input into what is the way moving forward,” he said.

Administration said the detachment already has detailed graphs and statistics from 2025 to help guide the discussion.

Chief Administrative Officer Steven Jeffery suggested the first step should be to hear directly from the RCMP about what last year looked like in the community before deciding how best to involve the public.

Council also discussed the Town’s newer policing committee and whether that group could eventually play a role in connecting council, RCMP and residents more directly.

Jeffery noted the Town has hosted public policing forums before and said those events can lead to useful conversations about issues such as property crime, vagrancy and policing processes.

“I don’t want to let the RCMP off the hook either,” he said. “I think they need to answer the public in that open house form.”

For now, council’s next move will be to hear from RCMP leadership first, then decide on any broader public process that might follow.