Alberta Municipalities wants to see a public safety task force set up to determine future steps in policing.

Directors of the group, formerly known as the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association, met with  the Minister of Justice Tyler Shandro last week to talk about the future of policing and public safety. 

In a statement released Thursday the directors believe that if the ministry wants to improve policing and public safety, it needs to stop planning and designing a policing model in a vacuum. 

An effective task force must include Alberta Health Services, Community and Social Services, municipalities, the federal government and the RCMP themselves.

They say the ministry needs to bring all stakeholders to the table to develop a public safety model. 

If the mandate of the task force is to simply transition to an Alberta Provincial Police Service, then they say municipalities have been clear they don't support that.

The statement goes on to say:

"The provincial government provides input on the hiring of the provincial leadership of the RCMP, sets the RCMP’s budget, sets policing priorities and can integrate mental health and social supports when faced with the complex policing challenges that Alberta’s communities face know that the recommendations from Alberta’s communities are being heard by RCMP, and that adjustments to the way it delivers contract policing are being made. ABmunis is confident that the RCMP are adapting and making great strides in community policing."

The NDP's Justice critic Irfan Sabir says the UCP government should listen to municipalities.