SASKATOON -- Saskatoon Police officers are correctly following a recently implemented policy on contact interviews according to a report from Saskatoon Police Service.

The new policy for contact interviews, also known as street checks, was developed by the Saskatchewan Police Commission in late 2018, and implemented by the Saskatoon Police Service in March of last year.

Contact interviews are defined as police contact with the public initiated by a member of the police service for the purpose of obtaining information. The information is not related to a specific offense, and must be more than common information available to the public.

The policy stipulates that contact interviews cannot be conducted with someone based on age, religion, race, ethnicity, colour, gender or sexual orientation. It also states a contact interview cannot be conducted only because a person is in an area known for high rates of crime.

The report says the majority of contact interviews in 2019 were compliant with the new policy. Since October, it says police followed the policy 100 per cent of the time. It says non-compliant contact interviews made on prohibited grounds took place while officers were still receiving training.

The report says police examined all 498 documented cases of contact interviews from March 19th through December 31st 2019. It says 244 of them were not actually contact interviews and nine were submitted as clerical errors and reporting test cases.

The other 245 interactions were classified as contact interviews. Of those, 201 complied with the policy and procedure.

The report is on the agenda for the next board of police commissioners meeting scheduled for Thursday at City Hall