The Brandon Police Service are the owners of a brand new armoured rescue vehicle (ARV) that will be used for high risk incidents in Brandon, and southwestern Manitoba. Brandon Police, along with other police forces across southwestern Manitoba will have this new vehicle at their disposal in cases of high risk incidents. Sporting a lifted chassis, armor, roof-mounted camera, and emergency lighting/siren among other features, this vehicle will allow law enforcement to better handle high risk situations, which may include victim recovery from "the hot zone". Brandon Police Chief Wayne Balcaen says, "We will be able to deploy this rescue vehicle within the region in a very timely manner, which will increase community and officer safety." Chief Balcaen goes on to say, "In 2018, our police service deployed the Emergency Response Team 14 times, and 6 times in 2019, which is still triple our historic average of 2 deployments per year." The new truck is operationally ready for deployment, however, training and familiarization of officers will continue into 2020. Photos by Liam Pattison Photography.

Brandon, MB – The City of Brandon’s Community Services Department is pleased to advise the public that Brandon’s outdoor skating oval located immediately west of the Parks Complex on McGregor Avenue will open for the 2019-2020 winter season as of 4 p.m. tomorrow, Friday, December 20th. As there are still some fringe areas of the oval under development, all users are asked to respect the signage and barricades which remain in place at this time. Hours of operation at the oval will be 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. through the course of the winter season, weather-permitting. The oval is developed each year by Community Services staff and provides for warming shacks, portable washroom facilities, flood lighting, ambient music, and fire pits to cook on or warm up around. In addition, the Manitoba Hydro Waterfall of Lights is also lit until 11 p.m. each evening so the public can skate around the oval and take in the brilliant, festive displays. The public should note that while use of the skating oval is FREE, it is unsupervised, with no sticks, pucks or pets allowed on the ice surface. The public is encouraged to park in designated areas on McGregor Avenue or Hilton Avenue, as NO public vehicles are allowed in the direct area of the Manitoba Hydro Waterfall of Lights display or the skating oval. The public is also asked to enjoy all lighting displays at a safe distance and not to walk in areas where power cords are directly present. Another of Brandon’s popular winter amenities – the outdoor “Jam Pail Curling” sheet located to the south of the skating oval – will be available for public use next month, with a specific opening date yet-to-be-determined. For more information on the many other public winter activities overseen by the City of Brandon’s Community Services Department, including its various sledding/toboggan hills and outdoor trails, please call 204-729-2148. (City of Brandon Release)

In late November, Assiniboine Community College announced the opening of its new retail space as part of the Food Processing Centre for Animal Proteins on campus. The college invited the public to help name the new storefront. Assiniboine has selected a name for its new meat retail shop on campus. The winning entry, The Protein Pantry, comes from Wanda Cameron of Boissevain. In addition to bragging rights, the winning entry came with a $150 gift certificate to the shop, which Wanda plans to donate to the Boissevain Food Pantry. Assiniboine received close to 400 entries to the contest. In the New Year, signage for The Protein Pantry will be designed and installed. The space is part of the $1.6 million Food Processing Centre, which opened in November. The project was generously supported with a combined $1.165 million from the Government of Canada, Province of Manitoba, Maple Leaf Foods, HyLife Foods, Manitoba Pork, UFCW Local 832, the Brandon Hog and Livestock Show. The storefront is located at the college’s Victoria Avenue East Campus in room 261. Planned continued hours of operation in the New Year are as follows: Monday and Tuesday:            noon to 4 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday:     noon to 5 p.m. Friday:                                     11 a.m. to 4 p.m. (ACC News)

Source: Brandon Police Service Media Release On December 18, 2019 shortly after 4:00 pm, police received a report that a vehicle had just been stolen from the 2200 block of Van Horne Ave. The owner witnessed the vehicle driving northbound away from the scene. Police located the vehicle parked, and unoccupied in front of a residence in the 000 block of 22 street N, and set up a perimeter to locate the suspects in the area. The suspect attempted to flee the area on foot; however, he was apprehended and arrested several blocks away. Upon his arrest, the suspect dropped a machete. Police learned that the suspect was to abide by court ordered conditions not to possess any weapons. The 16-year-old male youth was lodged at Brandon Correctional Centre and will appear this morning in court on charges of Theft of Motor Vehicle, Resist Arrest, Possess Weapon Dangerous, and Fail to comply with Conditions of Recognizance. He was also the subject of an arrest warrant, and will face previous charges of Unauthorized Possession of Firearm, Carry Firearm in Careless Manner, Fail to Attend Court, and Fail to Comply with Conditions of Recognizance.

Source: Brandon Police Service Media release On November 29, 2019, we released a report regarding two sexual assaults in which a massage therapist was responsible, and arrested. One assault occurring in the fall of 2018 and a second assault occurring on October 30, 2019. In both cases, the two victims report that while receiving a massage the therapist made inappropriate sexual comments, while touching them in a sexual manner. Since that report, six other adult females have come forward to report similar occurrences between February and August 2019. The victims came forward with their reports independently of one another. On December 17, 2019, the 54-year-old male suspect was arrested for the additional six offences. He will appear in court on January 20, 2020 for all eight of the Sexual Assault counts, which includes the original two. The male was working as an independent contractor at a business during these assaults. Since his initial arrest, he has taken a leave of absence, and is no longer seeing clients out of the business where the assaults took place.