Grande Prairie Police Service takes over jurisdiction from RCMP
The new municipal force formally replaced the RCMP detachment on October 21, 2026, backed by an extra $2 million in provincial funding.
Why it matters
Residents of Grande Prairie now have a locally controlled police force responsible for 911 response, replacing decades of RCMP service.
The Grande Prairie Police Service (GPPS) officially became the police of jurisdiction for the City of Grande Prairie at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, taking over all city policing duties from the Grande Prairie RCMP detachment.
At a press conference outside the former RCMP building, now GPPS headquarters, Mayor Jackie Clayton said the switch stemmed from a police service model review council launched in 2021 after hearing concerns that RCMP policing wasn't localized enough for the community. Chief Dwayne Lakusta said the transition team completed the move two years ahead of schedule, noting it was the first new police service built in Alberta in 70 years, with no existing road map to follow.
Clayton said the accelerated timeline, while a success, increased upfront costs since the transition could not be spread across multiple years as originally planned. Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services Mike Ellis attended the event and announced an additional $2 million in provincial grant funding to support the transition and the service's new dispatch centre.
Ellis said the dispatch centre will handle both police and fire dispatching for the Grande Prairie area. Lakusta added that the centre will free up sworn officers to focus on high-risk and criminal incidents rather than call volume. Grande Prairie RCMP officers are relocating to a new detachment in Clairmont.
Compiled by the Alberta Daily Desk — an AI-written summary of reporting from the credited sources below, produced and reviewed under our editorial policy.