THUNDER BAY — Drug-related violence across Nishnawbe Aski Nation territories must end.
That’s what Grand Chief of Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN), Alvin Fiddler, said during Nishnawbe Aski Police Service’s (NAPS) annual general meeting on Tuesday.
“With that growth of our police service is also just the growth of drugs coming into our community and the violence that comes with it,” Fiddler said.
The annual meeting connects police services with the chiefs of the communities they serve, so they can receive feedback.
Fiddler said that despite the police force’s growth, more drugs are being smuggled into remote communities, leading to an increase in crime.
“There’s a real demand on policing right now for public safety and community safety, and NAPS should be able to or needs to be in a position to be able to meet that growing demand,” he said.
Currently, NAPS has only one K9, Kona; their previous second K9, Becks, left the service to work at another police service, Chief of Police Terry Armstrong said.
But another one is on the way.
“We just got a puppy,” Armstrong said. “The trainer is going down at this time to get the dog.”
Securing more K9s to work on the police force is crucial to meet the growing demand for safety in remote communities, he said.
“There’s a lot of use for a canine now that we’re back to one,” Armstrong said.
“The K9 is being utilized constantly; he doesn’t get a lot of time off.”
“That’s one of the needs that has been identified by our management at NAPS: we need to have more capacity to be able to support our communities, defending and patrolling their borders.”
Receiving feedback from the chiefs and community leaders is important, Armstrong said.
“The feedback was very, very knowledgeable and very well put,” he said.
“The concerns that the chiefs have are relevant, and we need to find ways to work together to resolve some of the ongoing challenges.”
The police force is working towards increased border security in First Nations while handling challenges.
“Drugs are a problem throughout Canada and certainly through Ontario, so we’re not immune to that. We do have issues as well,” Armstrong said.
“We continue to use the most modern technology and the most modern policing investigative skills to get us to a point of working with the communities,” he said.
“A lot of our information in respect to drug enforcement and drug resolution is based on community engagement, and the people in the communities provide a lot of the information we use to be successful in our investigations.”
