Foothills County will get at least one officer dedicated to rural crime with the province adding 76 more officers around the Province.

County Reeve Suzanne Oel says the officer will be based out of the Okotoks detachment.

She says she's hoping for more down the road, as their costs for policing are enough to account for a one per cent tax hike this year and it'll go up over the next few years.

"We had $666,000 this year and coming up in years two and three and four we kind of go on a scale that brings us up to approximately $2-million by year four and that would equate to about 3 per cent (tax increase) in total."

She says part of the Province's plan is to also have the County along with others get more say in what rural policing will look like moving forward.

"I believe that's part of the plan was to set up an organization in which there would be input from all the different jurisdictions in the province."

She says there's no timeline or structure in place for that committee yet.

But she says it will likely be discussed this year.

 

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