Saskatoon police committing three officers to curb crime in Pleasant Hill
The Saskatoon Police Service is dedicating three officers to a specialized unit to help curb crime in the Pleasant Hill neighbourhood.
Last fall, members of the Pleasant Hill Community Association asked the Board of Police Commissioners for more preventive policing resources.
A member of the Pleasant Hill Community Association told CTV News that police would need to take a different approach to build trust in the community.
"Every year, we tell the city that we need to invest in prevention in our community, (and) invest in relationships — the residents are tired of sounding like a broken record,” community association member Shane Partridge said at the time.
"We need a police presence in our community not like the other communities."
According to a report from police to the board of police commissioners on Thursday, help is now on its way.
On May 1, the service plans to move three officers from patrol to the community mobilization unit, where they’ll focus on the Pleasant Hill community.
Police Supt. Darren Pringle said there are three main components to the plan.
He said officers will consult with community members to identify key issues, while crime analysts will follow trends and find patterns in criminal activity to help police be in “the right place at the right time.”
“There is more of a sporadic nature to the crime in Pleasant Hill, which is challenging to have uniform folks in place to interdict,” he said.
“I think that’s why with this new layered approach that we’re going to be trying … it gives us a few more options, because we are potentially in the right place at the right time more often.”
Pringle said police will also use data to do “service mapping” to find where first responders are consistently being called to.
“Every police service knows crime is under reported, so is there a way to determine if crime is happening perhaps in a different way, perhaps by service response,” he said.
He said if police aren’t getting called for crimes, but ambulance or fire continue to respond to the same area, then service mapping may give police insight on “reported activity in the community.”
Pringle says the framework of this plan can be applied to other communities, if needed.
-With files from Keenan Sorokan
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
New photos released of Luigi Mangione as prosecutors obtain arrest warrant for suspect in N.Y. shooting
Manhattan prosecutors have obtained a warrant for the arrest of Luigi Nicholas Mangione, the 26-year-old suspect in the brazen Manhattan killing of UnitedHealthcare's CEO.
'Governor Justin Trudeau': Trump appears to mock PM in social media post
Amid a looming tariff threat, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump appears to be mocking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, referring to him as 'Governor Justin Trudeau' in a post on Truth Social early Tuesday.
Canada announces new sanctions against Chinese, Russian officials
Past and present senior Chinese officials, as well as Russian officials and collaborators, are the subjects of new human rights sanctions, the Canadian government said Tuesday.
'I never got the impression he would self-destruct:' Friends of suspect in fatal CEO shooting left in shock
Months before police identified Luigi Mangione as the man they suspect gunned down a top health insurance CEO and then seemingly vanished from Midtown Manhattan, another disappearing act worried his friends and family.
Google pulls McDonald's negative reviews over arrest in UnitedHealth murder
Google on Monday removed derogatory reviews about McDonald's MCD.N after the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson was arrested at its restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where police say a customer alerted a local employee about him.
Canadian man sentenced for embezzling US$1.4 million from employer and clients
U.S. authorities have sentenced a Canadian man to 20 months in prison for a US$1.4-million embezzlement scheme.
Freeland doesn't commit to meeting her own deficit target in fall economic statement
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is not committing to meeting the $40.1-billion deficit target she set for the government last year.
'Godfather of AI' Geoffrey Hinton receives Nobel Prize in physics
Artificial intelligence pioneer Geoffrey Hinton and co-laureate John Hopfield have received the Nobel Prize for physics at a ceremony in Stockholm.
'I was just trying to help her': Ontario woman loses $14,000 to taxi scam
An Ontario woman thought she was helping another woman pay for their taxi ride, but instead she was defrauded of $14,000.