Jesse Gilbert looks back on his first full year as Battlefords commander. (File Photo/battlefordsNOW staff)

By Julia Lovett-Squires

Gilbert Look Back

RCMP’s Jesse Gilbert looks back on 2023

Dec 25, 2023 | 5:00 PM

As Christmas draws ever closer, the commander of the Battlefords RCMP detachment is taking stock of all that was accomplished in 2023.

“It was actually nice for me, it was my first full year in the Battlefords,” said Commander Jesse Gilbert.

“I think it’s been a pretty successful year. We had a couple of positive initiatives launched, we’ve had some really good engagement with the members,” he added.

Gilbert explained the inter-agencies were productive and their community outreach went better than last year. As this is now his tenth career posting and fourth province, the commander said the level of community engagement in the Battlefords never ceases to amaze.

“It seems like everybody wants to contribute and everyone is an active participant in the conversation of moving things forward,” he said.

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The department had a busy year and among the initiatives he’s proud of are the 9 p.m. Routine in a partnership with the city.

“That actually saw some really good results,” he said of the nightly checklist to remove anything of value from vehicles and ensuring home security systems are activated.

“We had a 25 per cent reduction in vehicle theft, which was fantastic. We launched a catalytic converter program, for registering those, there’s been a significant dip in catalytic converter thefts,” said Gilbert.

“I’d love to say that’s our good work though but it’s actually been a dip across the province so I can’t say for sure if it was our program.”

Another big change that took place this year was the announcement that the former liquor store across the street would be turned into more office space and even a training suite that will serve as a training hub for North District Saskatchewan.

“There’s a lot of people in the building, space is at a premium and so we engaged the city and the province early on in the last year to try and figure out another avenue for what we could do for space,” he said of the detachment’s growth spurt.

Gilbert attributed the success of getting the building repurposed for RCMP use was due to the cooperation between the city, the province, and internal RCMP.

“I think it really speaks to the importance that my organization places on this area and the importance that the province places on the area,” he said.

“It was really good for the membership to see that they do believe that investment here is important and they do believe that this area will grow.”

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julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

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