Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

This tale starts with a job search, and ends with a job. My girlfriend Ashley was attempting to obtain a criminal record check of her clean history to present it with a job application. There’s been a string of people robbing the provincial government [and even Mounties] blind, so employers really like to have them these days.

Ashley contacted Regina’s RCMP depot because she is studying at the UofR and lives on campus without a vehicle. The Mounties informed her of the $35 fee for a full check, and noted that they don’t typically deal with people from Briercrest area. She then phoned Moose Jaw city police where she’s obtained a Canadian Police Information Check (C-PIC) before, and her mother has obtained 4 C-PICs from Moose Jaw, always with a Briercrest home address. However, this time the police were “snotty” and told her that she couldn’t obtain a check from them, and she must contact the Moose Jaw RCMP instead.

Moose Jaw RCMP then told Ashley to contact Milestone RCMP if she couldn’t make it to Moose Jaw. Her mother phoned Moose Jaw RCMP to book an appointment and they told her she needed to go to Milestone. She asked why they couldn’t serve Briercrest residents any longer. Only after Ashley’s mom protested and mentioned that they’d earlier promised to give the form in an earlier phone call did the RCMP in Moose Jaw suggest that maybe the Depot in Regina would give the form.

After explaining the hoops to Regina RCMP, they agreed to give the C-PIC to Ashley, while noting they don’t serve the Briercrest area. I was intrigued that the RCMP could be so ignorant of their jurisdiction, so was inspired to phone the Briercrest Village office and ask who they pay for police service. I was assuming that municipalities pay detachments for policing services, but it turns out Sask Justice is who gets the cheque.

I phoned at 5:16 PM Wednesday, and spoke with Sandra who told me that she couldn’t give me the information about who the village paid for policing. I explained I was doing a report for my blog, and was interested in rural policing data. She asked me to fax her the details of my report before she’d give out any information to me.

Why should someone asking for public knowledge have to fax for a simple question? I guess the village office just likes paper work.

I faxed my question to the village last week. “If I were in Briercrest and needed non-emergency policing services, which RCMP number would I phone?” A week later… I have no reply. Good thing it’s not an emergency, eh?

Ashley now has her C-PIC, for free, from the Regina RCMP. And she’s got the job she was looking for. And the most logical policing service point actually provided excellent service after first giving her the run-around. If I feel like it, or if anyone would like to know why Briercrest didn’t respond to my question in a timely way, I’ll phone them back to ask.