KRPF wants money to expand

KUUJJUAQ — Ten years after its creation, the Kativik Regional Police Force is looking for more money and more officers to keep the peace in Nunavik.

The police force wants to increase its numbers from 54 to 78. Under this plan, two additional constables each would go to Kuujjuaq, Inukjuak, and Puvirnituq, with smaller communities getting one new constable each. A team of investigators to handle major crimes would be located in Kuujjuaq.

But to add this manpower and, at the same time, replace its fleet of aging vehicles (which costs $300,000 a year to maintain), improve staff housing, and reduce turnover, the KRPF wants a budget increase of $6.5 million a year.

That’s the message police brought to last week’s meeting of councilors with the Kativik Regional Government. Brian Jones, the KRPF’s chief of police and Jobie Epoo, now the KRPF’s deputy chief, told councilors they need united support from the region to lobby for a larger budget.

“People need the policing they deserve,” Jones said.

Meanwhile, the KRPF is doing some serious cost-cutting. The KRPF has a deficit of about $600,000 this year on its annual budget of about $10 million, and must find ways to recover its losses.

The KRPF received an additional $700,000 this year from Quebec, which helped cover shortfalls, but Ottawa refused to match that sum, so police are now trimming expenses in an effort to reduce their deficit.

Police attribute the deficit to rising travel and housing costs and other unavoidable expenses resulting from limited resources, aging equipment and high turnover rates.

Police say the high turnover is due to poor salaries paid by the KRPF, which can’t compete with other employers in the region. Right now, only 20 per cent of the 54-person force is Inuit. Many Nunavimmiut have been hired, but left the force, since it was formed 10 years ago.

“We find it extremely difficult to recruit Inuit people or keep them,” Epoo told KRG councilors.

To maintain and improve services over the long term, the KRPF says it needs to add 14 new officers so each community will have a minimum of three officers. The KRPF also wants four new special investigators, better equipment, housing, more training and improved working conditions.

At the KRG meeting, the councilors approved a resolution so the KRPF can lease up to 16 new police vehicles. They also passed a resolution supporting the KRPF in its work on the “prevention and suppression of crime.”

The police are seeking more support at a time when the rate of violent crime is on the rise in the region. To date this year in Nunavik, there have been five homicides.

But not everyone supports the KRPF, and some say the KRPF is already too heavy-handed in its approach.

Recently in Salluit, police ended up pointing their guns at a young man who was holding a gun to his mouth. The man had stuffed a seal with stones so he would get paid more by Hunter Support for the heavy animal, and, after the fraud was exposed on community radio, residents say he became depressed.

“He was more a danger to himself than anyone else,” said a man who watched a confrontation unfold. “These police, they don’t know anyone in the community.”

Police met up with the man by his canoe. According to the eyewitness, the man then put his gun to mouth and was soon surrounded by police pointing guns at him, before he gave up.

But no shots were fired — making this a successful operation, police say.

Police in Nunavik started carrying firearms last year, due to the rising number of gun-related incidents they routinely encounter.
Two weeks ago, a constable was shot by two armed youth while jogging in a Hudson Bay community.