Police won't conduct scheduled sweeps on Moncton school grounds this year

Police stop patrols at Moncton school yards Daily police patrols aimed at keeping students in Moncton safe on school grounds stopped in June and will not return this fall.

When children arrive at four schools in Moncton, N.B., next week, they won't be greeted by members of the RCMP.

Daily police patrols aimed at keeping students safe from used needles and unwanted people on school grounds stopped at the end of June and won't resume, at least not entirely.

Benoit Jolette, the superintendent of the Codiac Regional RCMP, said they started doing the sweeps based on complaints from the Anglophone East School District, but with 37 schools in the Greater Moncton area, they can't be everywhere.

"We're going to be responsive when we get specific complaints, but also we'll be proactive as much as we can throughout the Greater Moncton area," said Jollette.

While police won't be doing scheduled patrols, they will sporadically attend all 37 schools including Hillcrest School, Bessborough School, Edith Cavell School and École Sainte-Bernadette.

Jamie Mills is director of operations at Harvest House, a faith-based downtown homeless shelter and addiction treatment centre.

He often gathers needles and sometimes even drugs in the neighbourhood, including on the grounds of Edith Cavell.

“It's not a part of our day-to-day operations, but we do on occasion come here and we've found paraphernalia on their grounds, in Victoria Park and around the neighbourhood,” said Mills.

“There's a lot of drug use in this area. There's a lot of drug use in the city. It's a real problem, more than I've ever seen in my life.”

A spokesperson for the City of Moncton said school property is on provincial land and the school districts manage their property.

Needles and other items can be reported to the city and it will make arrangements on an individual basis, but city staff are not responsible for conducting sweeps on every school property.

The superintendent of the Anglophone East School District said they recently had a productive meeting with the RCMP and they have contingency plans in place.

"They've assured us, and we've had nothing but positive experiences, if something does come up, it's a matter of making a phone call and they'll arrive in a timely manner," said Randy MacLean.

"We've never had a situation, to my knowledge, where we've had a safety issue during the school day in relation to any student safety and staff safety."

A spokesperson for the district said any unauthorized people on school grounds are asked to leave immediately and any dangerous or illegal activity is reported to the police.