Sask. spending $17M to shore up local police in bid to fight 'social disorder'

The Saskatchewan government announced a series of policing and court initiatives Thursday that it hopes will make people feel safer in their communities.

More than $17 million is going towards hiring more police officers, training new officers, and creating new ways to enforce the law.

"The safety of our communities and neighbourhood remains a priority for the government of Saskatchewan," said Paul Merriman, the minister of corrections, policing and public safety.

"Rising incidence of social disorder and crime in our communities is impacting feelings of safety and security for businesses and residents."

As part of the funding, $11.9 million will go towards hiring roughly 100 new municipal police officers, $2.7 million is marked for 14 new safer communities and neighbourhoods (SCAN) officers and $2.5 million is slated for the Saskatchewan Police College over the next three years to expedite police training.

According to the province's funding formula, that will translate to $4.4 million in new funding to hire approximately 37 additional frontline officers for the Saskatoon Police Service.

The SCAN officers — Provincial Protective Services officers who investigate complaints with local police — will be doubled in Saskatoon, Prince Albert and Regina as part of the funding.

"In Saskatoon, we've seen increases in violent crime and social disorder and in the use of weapons, and while solutions are not easy, the commitment to bring about change is strong," Saskatoon police chief Cam McBride said.

"Today's funding announcement, to me, is confirmation that our commitment to work together is firmly established."

Justice Minister Bronwyn Eyre announced changes to the provincial justice system to ensure municipal bylaws "have teeth," as well as looking at ways to expedited traffic court as well as enhancing the fine option program to ensure people who break the law and cannot pay a fine are held accountable.

Much of the efforts announced Thursday are aimed at freeing up officers to spend more time addressing serious crimes rather than being tied up prosecuting lesser offences.

"We need more officers out there," Merriman said. "The officers that are out there are doing an amazing job, but our communities are growing and the needs are changing from what the officers were dealing with ten years ago."

A report to Saskatoon's board of police commissioners last November showed one-third of arrests are for public intoxication. Roughly 15 people per day are in police detention for alcohol or drug intoxication.

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Of those who end up in police detention, half have no home to return to on release. Saskatoon's 15-bed emergency shelter opened last month, but it remains one of the few places to send people struggling with mental health or addictions issues, which McBride says is more of a health issue than a crime or policing issue.

"But their behaviour and the outward manifestation of what's happening is victimizing the community,' McBride said.

"So, yes, it's tragic that somebody whose life circumstance is a result of perhaps neglect or poverty or trauma, but their behaviour leads them to a circumstance where they're incarcerated -- but it is a continuum."

Last October, the province announced a major shift in that continuum by changing its approach to homelessness and addiction with funding for additional shelters, treatment spaces and supportive housing units.

Nearly one year later, the province has failed to open all of its shelters in Saskatoon and Regina.

Even with the slow progress of the province's action plan and little capacity for social disorder arrests, McBride says the goal with more officers is to provide better outcomes.

"When you have a full complement of frontline members on the on the street working, you have the capacity to meet an individual where they're at and sometimes it takes more than just a short interaction with that person to find out what they need in the moment," he said.

"So having the ability to really spend time with an individual is critical to make sure they get that not not only the attention that they need in the moment, but that they get, the opportunity to have the best outcome."

The province's efforts are also aimed at smaller communities across the province. Using a bylaw court "hub" model similar to Kindersley's Municipal Bylaw Court, the province plans to establish a number of bylaw courts to enforce incidents of graffiti, vandalism, or even "vicious dogs."

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"Municipal bylaws are sometimes regarded as the small stuff -- vicious dogs, graffiti, trespass. But it's the small stuff, the broken windows stuff, that leads to neighbourhood trouble and decline," Eyre said.