Wednesday, March 5, 2025 Vol. 48, No. 09
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Viking RCMP hosts Town Hall Patricia Harcourt Editor
The Viking RCMP held a town hall meeting at the Viking Carena to address community related issues and discuss programs to mitigate them. The charm offensive is being carried out by Viking’s new detachment commander, Sgt. Ray Stack, who wants the community to feel comfortable dealing with the RCMP. “We’re friendly,” he told the crowd attending the meeting held on Wednesday, Feb. 26. He remembered as a young person how this friendliness played out in his own community, which he said influenced him to join the police force. But he admits that nowadays, the RCMP have become more paramilitary in nature in order to catch the bad guys. And what may have suffered in upping the ante to get criminals is the more personalized relations within communities the police are serving. “We’ve got away from community policing,” he said, adding he “likes small towns” and feels that he can have more impact serving there. Stack arrived in Viking from the Vegreville RCMP to take over the detachment here last October. He said the detachment suffered from low staffing with only two constables working the entire region. Now the detachment has four officers and two administration staff, plus himself; and, he wants to increase enforcement with a goal of protection
of the public and catching criminals perpetrating crime. “I’m very excited about what I want to do in the Viking area,” he said. He is aware of criminals taking the back roads east from Fort Saskatchewan ending up in the Lamont area, then heading further east to Vegreville and south to this area. “It’s the same group,” he said, travelling to Beaver and Flagstaff counties. While property crime is still an issue, there has been a real rise in mental health issues the police are being called out to handle. But he called it “refreshing here how drugs are not a big deal as they are in the bigger centres.” His wish is also to improve police visibility to increase public awareness, although that was difficult to do last year with only two constables. This includes increasing awareness in the schools by going in for talks on issues such as how youth can deal with the perils of social media, and also police visiting with parents. Vialta Lodge residents have also been given a presentation on dealing with fraud recently. “We want to keep these up,” he said, speaking of communicating how scams are making their way through the area, including a recent jewellery scam. “We had two last week,” he said, of that scam which involves someone on the side of the road attempting to trade money for jewellery that turns out to be cheap imitations of
what they appear to be. The person pretends to be out of gas and has a child in the car to add to the sympathy factor. As for criminals hitting oil sites in Flagstaff, Stack says “They are now locked up.” “There are some to be released soon. We already have our eyes on them.” He noted that the phones at the police detachment are ringing at night, but there are no staff during that time. Instead, he urged residents to call 011 and stay on the line. “Call it in and they will eventually pick it up,” he said, adding that the police will respond. Continued on Page 13 Sgt. Ray Stack, Viking Detachment’s new commander, speaks to a group of residents at an RCMP Town Hall meeting Wednesday, Feb. 26 at the Carena lobby. PATRICIA HARCOURT PHOTOS