At a town hall in Taylor, British Columbia, residents expressed a demand for more policing resources in rural communities that often feel overlooked compared to their urban counterparts.
When it comes to jurisdiction, Taylor is covered by Fort St. John RCMP but the provincial police force serves a wide swathe of territory well over 100 km long including the communities of Wonowon, Pink Mountain and several First Nations reserves.
As reported by Alaska Highway News, Taylor’s policing is also supplemented by police officers from the nearby Fort St. John, but the community has been in discussion to request additional policing resources.
According to Mayor Brent Taillefer, Taylor will be lobbying the BC government and potentially raising taxes to pay for the costs.
“Two members at the most to cover this huge area we feel, in Taylor, is not enough,” Taillefer said during the town hall.
“So if we need to increase provincial policing and that means they need to collect money through taxation to do so for the rural areas, I believe that people are OK with spending a little more money to see more police.”
Instead of getting a designated police officer for the area, the community has opted to call for a general increase in rural policing.
“That is the route, rather than trying to hire a police officer for Taylor is to get more rural policing for the whole region,” said Taillefer.
BC Liberal MLA Dan Davies was also in attendance at the town hall and said that the “entire system” of policing needs to be reviewed to deal with current realities.
“The entire system needs to be reviewed on how the funding of our police forces, especially in rural areas, is done,” said Davies.
Some of the crime spilling into Taylor and the surrounding region is coming in across the Alberta provincial border.
