RCMP Staff Sgt. Jerry Nutbrown brings you behind the scenes with a serious of columns taking you behind police work and how it’s done in our community. If you have a question you think needs to be answered in Behind the Bison, send it to admin@borderpulse.ca and we will be sure to share it with him.
If you live in the City of Lloydminster, you most likely have been past, or maybe even into, the
Lloydminster Detachment. I’d like to open the door, so to speak, on the Lloydminster Detachment and
provide you a bit of an inside look. If you have applied for a job where a criminal record check is
required, or if you are volunteering and the organization requires a criminal record check, you likely
have been inside the detachment.
The Lloydminster RCMP Detachment houses a number of staff and officers to round out the services
provided as the contracted police service. Also, the Lloydminster Municipal Enforcement staff work out
of the detachment as does the city Director of Public Safety.
Upon entering the detachment your first interaction will be with our front-end staff. These folks will ask
a bunch of questions to be able to determine what is required and who is best suited to assist you with
your request. For some, these may be the only people they speak with but for others, more staff may be
involved.
If an officer is required to assist, one will be called to the front to speak with the client. It is possible that
a supervisor may be involved depending on the reason for the client attending. For the most part,
anyone coming into the detachment will interact with a limited number of staff.
The detachment also houses two Police Dog Services officers and their K-9 companions. These officers
are deployed for various reasons and are of a great benefit to providing an enhanced service to the
community and surrounding areas.
In the back areas away from public view are a number of other units that carry out various duties. Our
records department looks after the storage and handling of investigative files and the many
administrative tasks that comes with them. This includes electronic programs to track various things
such as outstanding arrest warrants and court updates.
Our Forensic Identification Section has a large area designated for them to be able to do their work. This
includes office space, a lab and a vehicle bay for examinations of vehicles or other large items. Things
like DNA processing, drug analysis are not completed inside the detachment as we do not have the
facilities or experts to complete these.
Another thing that takes a significant amount of space is the cellblock. It is rare for us not to have at
least one prisoner at any given time, but it is much more common that we will have many prisoners.
Some of the prisoners are due to fresh arrests while others may have been brought into town to appear
in court. The Alberta or Saskatchewan Sheriffs typically do all the transports but there are times that
local officers will do transports, but this is often to take someone apprehended under a Mental Health
Act to a proper facility.
There are many different jobs being done in the detachment that are required to fulfill our obligations in
providing policing services to the City of Lloydminster.
Read more: Behind the Bison: Drug Overdoses
