Saskatoon police plane logged 1,189 hours of flight time in 2021

The Saskatoon police plane spent plenty of time above the city’s skyline in 2021, logging a five-year high for the amount of hours, according to a report presented to the board of police commissioners Thursday.

The yearly report showed the Cessna 182 flew for 1,189 hours last year, which led to 240 arrests and 772 charges. The total number of charges from the air support unit represents a 12 per cent decrease from 2020 and a 28 per cent increase from 2019.

Since the unit was formed in 2005, it has compiled over 10,700 flight hours.

The report presented by Sgt. Wade Bourassa highlighted some of the rescue efforts the plane also assisted in.

On Aug. 30, 2021, the plane was dispatched by Rosthern RCMP to search for a naked three-year-old suffering from Autism who had wandered away from his home on the Beardy’s Okemasis Cree Nation.

Officers in the plane were able to point ground units in the proper direction, finding the boy in bushes more than a kilometre away from his home after a 33 minutes search.

“It’s a life-saving service,” Bourassa said to the board.

Another rescue effort highlighted by Bourassa in a video to the board showed the air support helping officers search for a 13-year-old who left her care home and was reported to be in a suicidal state of mind. She had taken clothes and tied them together to form a rope. The unit found the girl and watched as she climbed a baseball field backstop 30 feet in the air while tying her rope to the top of the backstop. Officers on the ground were able to reach her in time and talk her down from the fence.

Coun. Hilary Gough, a member of the board, said residents have approached her about noise complaints believed to be from the police plane.

“Every loud airplane or helicopter, it must be the police, right?” Bourassa said. “There’s well over 100,000 airplane movements at the Saskatoon airport. We routinely get blamed for, you know, STARS, military, freight aircraft and recreational pilots who operate quite often 1,500 feet lower than what we operate and with no muffler.”

Bourassa said the air support unit accounts for 0.0035 per cent of all air traffic originating from the airport.

According to the Saskatoon police website, the plane must fly at 2,400 feet.

Bourassa said years ago they began tracking complaints after they started to pile up. He found that the plane was flying only 42 per cent of the time when the complaints were reported.

“Of that 42 per cent it was the same three people complaining 92 per cent of the time,” he said.

The plane isn’t the only aircraft operating at night with military aircraft or flight students also flying above Saskatoon after sunset.

“There's general aviation people that come from all over the province to see the big city lights from the airplane,” Bourassa said.

He also spoke about the air support unit being looked at as a leader by police forces all over the continent. The RCMP F Division is looking at launching its own air support unit using Saskatoon police as an example. Bourassa also mentioned his close work with Regina police to secure their own aircraft and equipment to mirror Saskatoon’s program.

“It’s been noticed by our partners agencies in North America, Canada, and even locally at home here in Saskatoon and Regina. That tells me we’re pointed in a very true, right direction,” he said.