The Town of The Pas had their regular meeting of council on Monday evening and RCMP Staff Sergeant Brent Mattice and a few other RCMP members attended to discuss the priorities for the town. The Pas mayor Jim Scott says there are three priorities that they are looking at. The First one that needs to be dealt with is the situation of organized crime and gang activity, the other is making sure the roads are safer in town, and one of the most important is dealing with violence in the community.

Scott says most of the towns violence is domestic and 9.9 times out of 10 these acts of violence are alcohol related. A lot of residents are afraid of going downtown because they are being harassed and having things stolen from them. People have called the police and they accused them of not arriving but according to Scott the police have been arriving but not in a timely fashion because they are busy.

People have almost stopped calling the police out of fear that they won’t arrive but Scott urges all residents to call the police if they are a victim of a crime or if you see a crime being committed. Mayor and council will be meeting with the RCMP again later to discuss ways to tackle alcoholism and violence in the community. Some of the options are bringing in legislation to change the hours of the liquor store and bringing in help for people with addictions and mental health issues.