The Westerner for February 27, 2012
Posted by Brian F. Thompson
on Feb 29, 2012
Meeting: Chair, Bill + Sherry; Music, Jerome; Grace, Brian
Attendance / Guests: 27, including William Betteridge from Edmonton Riverview and Guest Speaker Dale McGowan
Announcements:
Attendance / Guests: 27, including William Betteridge from Edmonton Riverview and Guest Speaker Dale McGowan
Announcements:
- See Brian for Gift Cards - Remember that this is an easy way for us to raise needed funds for projects. As usual, a small number of members are regular supporters of this program and many members are not participating. If you are in the latter group, please give some consideration to using these cards to purchase your groceries. We have them available in denominations of $10, $25, $50, $100 and $500 and you can get them for Safeway, Sobeys / IGA and Saveon Foods.
- Clean Scene is looking for volunteers to help out at it's first Casino on Tuesday, March 27th and Wednesday, March 28th. If you can help, please give Mike Ryan a call.
- Steve McEachern advised that we have chosen our Club's nominee for an Integrity Award. He is Frank Armstrong, who had operated a coffee shop, worked in the oil patch and then worked for LaFarge Cement for many years. He was married for 44 years and has two daughters. For 8 years, he regularly visited a friend who was confined to the General Hospital. After that friend passed away, Frank carried on with visits to other patients and has been involved in bringing old time music entertainment to the patients. Please consider attending the Integrity Awards Dinner on Wednesday, April 25th at the new library in Sherwood Park. See Kieran for tickets.
- The recipients of this year's George Grover Scholarships will be in attendance at our March 26th meeting.
- Ron Hutchinson has tickets for the Centennial Interact Club Fund raising dinner and silent auction on April 13th. Cost is $50 per person.
- Capital Care Grandview is having a fund-raising dinner to support the renovations and refurbishment of the dining facilities. It is called "Flavours of the Mediterranean Fundraiser" and it will be at Parkallen Restaurant, 7018 - 109 Street on Wednesday, March 14th from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Tickets are $90 each and that includes hors d'oevres, wine tasting, dinner and silent auction. Phone 780-448-2413 to reserve your tickets.
- 50/50 draw cards were not matched by Al Holmes and Darryll White.
- Mike Henry focussed on the Opera in Edmonton in his role as Finemaster.
PROGRAM - RCMP DEPUTY COMMISSIONER DALE McGOWAN
Former Deputy Commissioner Don McDermid introduced current Deputy Commissioner Dale McGowan as our speaker for the day. He was raised in Edmonton, has 34 years experience in policing and was appointed Commander of K Division (Alberta) in 2011. During his years in the RCMP, he has had postings in the Territorries, BC and Saskatchewan. He was Commander of the Saskatchewan Division prior to his transfer to K Division. He has three children who are RCMP police.
The RCMP in Canada is broken down into 15 Divisions, employing a total of roughly 30,000. K Division is the second largest in Canada with approximately 4,000 employees and 111 detachments. The RCMP provides contract policing in 8 provinces plus many municipalities and first nations reserves. A 20 year contract has recently been signed for the policing of Alberta. Since being appointed to K Division, Dale has visited 70 of its detachments.
Dale views the RCMP as a service organization with similarities to the Rotary Service Above Self theme. It is the only police force in the world which is involved in municipal, provincial and federal policing plus it has assisted some 144 countries in training of their police forces.
Technology is being well used by criminals and that requires the police to keep up in that regard. Gangs have been found using GPS (Global Positioning System) mapping to target potential victims and properties (including vehicles, fuel and other equipment). Many of these gangs involve multi-jurisdictions, which makes the solving of crimes more complex.
Because of programs on Television like CSI, the expectations of the public for their police forces are very high. The problem for the police is that the public perceptions may not match reality. Dale noted that some media, particularly in the Vancouver and Ottawa areas, seem to be aggressive in providing negative reports about RCMP activities.
Dale thanked Rotary for being such a positive force in communities, which has the effect of making policing easier.
Darrel Ripley thanked Dale for his presentation.
Former Deputy Commissioner Don McDermid introduced current Deputy Commissioner Dale McGowan as our speaker for the day. He was raised in Edmonton, has 34 years experience in policing and was appointed Commander of K Division (Alberta) in 2011. During his years in the RCMP, he has had postings in the Territorries, BC and Saskatchewan. He was Commander of the Saskatchewan Division prior to his transfer to K Division. He has three children who are RCMP police.
The RCMP in Canada is broken down into 15 Divisions, employing a total of roughly 30,000. K Division is the second largest in Canada with approximately 4,000 employees and 111 detachments. The RCMP provides contract policing in 8 provinces plus many municipalities and first nations reserves. A 20 year contract has recently been signed for the policing of Alberta. Since being appointed to K Division, Dale has visited 70 of its detachments.
Dale views the RCMP as a service organization with similarities to the Rotary Service Above Self theme. It is the only police force in the world which is involved in municipal, provincial and federal policing plus it has assisted some 144 countries in training of their police forces.
Technology is being well used by criminals and that requires the police to keep up in that regard. Gangs have been found using GPS (Global Positioning System) mapping to target potential victims and properties (including vehicles, fuel and other equipment). Many of these gangs involve multi-jurisdictions, which makes the solving of crimes more complex.
Because of programs on Television like CSI, the expectations of the public for their police forces are very high. The problem for the police is that the public perceptions may not match reality. Dale noted that some media, particularly in the Vancouver and Ottawa areas, seem to be aggressive in providing negative reports about RCMP activities.
Dale thanked Rotary for being such a positive force in communities, which has the effect of making policing easier.
Darrel Ripley thanked Dale for his presentation.