The mayor of Logan Lake says her community is concerned by a proposed change in the current policing model.

Robin Smith says BC RCMP are asking its members in Logan Lake do to patrols in Merritt during the summer.

She says the local detachment is already short-staffed as it is.

“You know, if you’re proactive and you’re in the community and you have a presence, and you’re around, and people know you’re there, the place tends to be a little safer. But when people know you’re at minimum level of service and a good portion of time on patrol is going to be spent outside of your community, then people will catch on to that very very quickly.”

Smith says the proposal would only be temporary for the summer, and she says people there were told the policing agreement with Merritt would be reciprocal.

However, she says a small community is more sensitive to any level of drops in service.

“We see it with physicians and physician coverage and all sorts of things. And it’s just one more of those services that we just don’t want to see our community do without,” Smith says. “I think some of the concerns coming from the community’s perspective is it’s a reactive approach. So there’s not going to be necessarily officers just driving around patrolling and having a presence in the community if they’re being called down to Merritt when something’s not needing their attention up here.”

Smith says about 100 people in the town of 2,000 crammed municipal hall on Wednesday to hear a presentation from police explaining the proposal.

She says she will be asking for RCMP to hold a community meeting in Logan Lake before any change is implemented.

Radio NL is awaiting comment from The RCMP E Division on this matter.