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Saskatoon Police:
Lots of them
Sgt. Neil Wylie
Police action on Eighth
upsets some cruisers
Matt Goerzen. Star
Phoenix, Jul 29, 2004.
Saskatoon police are
taking a new approach to policing Eighth Street in an effort
to eliminate illegal activity by a small number of cruisers along
the strip.
"The vast majority of
people that are involved are just kids out there enjoying the
evening, but we get a few that are drinking and want to cause
trouble and break bottles on private property and some of the
business owners get upset," said Staff Sgt. Neal Wylie of
Saskatoon Police Service.
Police have stepped up patrols
of the parking lots commonly used by cruisers after receiving
frequent complaints from property owners.
"It would be like somebody
parking in your driveway. I don't think you'd appreciate (it)
if they broke beer bottles and threw garbage on your lawn and
left," Wylie said.
He said the goal is to teach
cruisers respect and that officers will use their discretion
and not crack down on parking lot gatherings as long as they
stay friendly.
Richard Klassen, who recently
settled a malicious prosecution lawsuit with the province in
an unrelated matter, spoke to city officials and police Thursday
on behalf of the cruisers.
A protest took place Tuesday
evening with cruisers parking in a side lane on Eighth Street,
but ended after Klassen informed them police plan to use discretion
if cruisers act with respect.
Police did not crack down on
the cruisers that evening and Klassen said he hopes that approach
will continue.
"You can't paint all the
teenagers with the same brush," he said. "They're better
off to let them park and visit, and the ones that are getting
rowdy, nab 'em."
Many young cruisers are upset
with the increased illegal behaviour on the strip as well.
"We want Eighth Street
back to the way it was, none of this beer everywhere and alcohol
and baseball bats," said Stephanie Inglehart. "We park
in the parking lots because it saves on gas," said the 23-
year-old. "We've been doing it for at least five, 10 years."
Mayor Don Atchison said he
used to participate in the decades- old practice himself.
"I don't think there'll
be any rush in the future to ticket people that are on private
property, (unless) they are drinking or doing any other illegal
criminal acts," he said.
Cruisers should try to discourage
illegal activity among themselves so that it isn't ruined for
them all, said Wylie.
"The bottom line is the
police cannot turn a blind eye to willful acts of violating provincial
statutes, which include the illegal use of alcohol, vehicle act
infractions and things along that line," he said. "We're
obligated to act."
Police levels highest
in nation
But numbers misleading, police officers say
Veronica Rhodes, Saskatchewan
News Network; The StarPhoenix; Regina Leader-Post, December 17,
2004
The Saskatoon and Regina areas
have some of the highest rates of police officers per capita
among Canadian cities, but police say the numbers are misleading.
The Saskatoon census metropolitan
area (CMA), with its 436 police officers, ranked third among
Canadian cities with 181 officers for every 100,000 people as
of June 15, says a Statistics Canada report released Thursday.
The Saskatoon area includes the city force as well as police
working in Dalmeny, Langham, Warman, rural Warman and rural Saskatoon.
When the city police force
is compared to other large municipal forces, Saskatoon drops
to ninth place with 358 officers or 177 per 100,000 population.
The national rate was 188.
Saskatoon police have complained
about chronic understaffing for years.
"As (officers) become
more involved in community services, then of course you need
more officers involved in other areas. That's sort of a trend
that's happening with policing now," said Saskatoon police
acting Insp. Craig Nyirfa.
"We have the community
liaison positions. We have school liaison positions. We have
aboriginal liaison positions, cultural relations positions. Then
at the same time, you're seeing the higher crime rate,"
he said.
Regina and its surrounding
area had the highest rate of police officers per capita, according
to the report.
The Regina CMA had 207 officers
per 100,000 people, while the city's police force ranked sixth
with 187 officers.
"Because we have (RCMP)
F Division headquarters here and we have the Regina rural detachments
here, those officers are included in the count," said Regina
police Chief Cal Johnston.
"We have those additional
officers and a sparse population so it looks like we are the
largest census metropolitan area. We're not."
Statistics Canada also found
that Saskatchewan had the highest rate of officers per capita
among all Canadian provinces, with 202 officers for every 100,000
people.
Manitoba was second highest
with 194 officers per 100,000 population and Quebec was third
with 191.
Peter Prebble, minister of
corrections and public safety, said the results are "very
positive."
Prior to the 1999 election,
the NDP promised to add 200 new officers to Saskatchewan's police
services. Prebble admitted his government has 49 positions to
go before the commitment is fulfilled.
"It is our intention to
keep working to keep that promise. This will be a major topic
of discussion in the budget deliberations that are coming up
basically over the next two months.
"I can't tell you how
long it will take for us to keep the commitment, but we'll keep
working on it throughout the next couple of years," said
Prebble.
The report noted Saskatchewan
also had the largest increase in police strength, with the number
of officers per capita rising 7.5 per cent during the last decade.
Johnston said the province
has unique policing needs, making the number of officers a necessity.
"In Saskatchewan, you
only have to visit our inner city or look at some of the social
issues we face. We have a growing youth population emerging from
very difficult conditions -- poverty, incomplete education, some
family dysfunction or breakdown -- and the opportunity for those
people to effectively join in our economy and our communities
isn't as strong as it should be so that gives rise to crime,"
said Johnston.
The cost of policing in Saskatchewan
was $186 per person in 2003, significantly less than the national
price tag of $263 per person. In total, policing cost Canadians
$8.3 billion in 2003.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2004
Police pitch station upgrade
Space problems force $55-million expansion plan
Rod Nickel, The StarPhoenix, October 21, 2004
The Saskatoon Police Service
is asking for an expanded, $55-million police station as it copes
with a severe space squeeze.
Work on the project would start
next year with the leasing of temporary space for $1 million
in the downtown post office building, allowing renovations to
begin on the station for another $1.4 million.
Expansion, lasting four to
five years and costing a further $52.9 million, would start in
2006. It would meet the police service's space needs for a decade,
said Chief Russell Sabo.
The board of police commissioners
will consider today approving the force's 2005 capital budget,
including the leasing and renovation costs. The project would
then face city council's scrutiny.
"We are at a point where
we have staff with no desk, no place to sit," Sabo said.
"We have turned what was our lunch room into office space,
our old library into office space. We've taken a lounge area
for senior executives and turned it into a lunch room because
of insufficient office space."
Once 10 new recruits who are
studying at police college arrive for duty at the end of the
year, the station will have one spare locker left, Sabo said.
The project would extend the
police station north over the existing police parking lot. Police
vehicles would be housed in new underground parking stalls.
The police station was built
27 years ago and has since been renovated but never expanded.
Some officers already work in the adjacent Saskatoon Tower, while
the force houses its canine unit at Innovation Place and leases
some storage space in the postal building.
Expansion would allow the police
service to consolidate in one main building, as well as the Riversdale
community station, Sabo said.
The expansion is the most costly
project by far in the 2005 police capital budget. The force won't
formally request the expansion funds for another year.
The project would dominate
police capital spending for the next decade. Leasing and renovations
eat up 83 per cent of the force's proposed 2005 capital budget
and of its 10-year capital budget.
The cost estimate is more than
double the $27-million working number city finance officials
had been using for a smaller-scale expansion.
The project is based on the
findings of a 2002 police facilities plan completed by architects
Carruthers Shaw and Partners Ltd.
The report found that in 2004,
the force would be operating with a space deficiency of 46,000
square feet. To accommodate growth during the next 10 years,
the police service needs an additional 85,000 square feet, the
firm reported.
"This isn't a luxury,
it's a necessity," said Const. Stan Goertzen, president
of the city police association.
The space crunch has over the
years generated concerns about safety and the station's weight
capacity, when files were stacked in hallways by a fire exit.
Those files are now in leased space at the post office, but office
supplies are still piled in hallways, Goertzen said.
During the last decade, files
that later became critical were inadvertently shredded to save
space, he said.
"There's a lot of inefficiencies,"
he said.
Mayor Don Atchison, who chairs
the police commission, is convinced the police service is "bursting
at the seams."
But he's unsure whether the
city can afford such a costly expansion, which is smaller only
than the $70-million completion of Circle Drive and the $100-million
water treatment plant upgrade also included in capital budget
spending proposals.
"My question is, 'Where's
it all going to come from?' " Atchison said. "I sure
don't see the taxpayers coming to the table for all that money.
There's a lot more work to be done."
The city may have to examine
the pros and cons of new financing options, such as spreading
mortgages over more than 15 years, and needs support of senior
governments, he said.
Atchison said it's no certainty
that the board of police commissioners and city council will
ante up for even the smaller leasing and renovation request for
2005.
Police commissioners will also
need to consider the comparative cost of building a new police
station and whether approving the expansion project will shortchange
the force when it needs to replace cars and equipment.
Ultimately, approval may depend
on how the public perceives the force in general, Atchison said.
"If they see a perceived
improvement, I think the public will be more accepting to pay
more."
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2004
Mayor's changes to policing philosophy
slow to happen
Rod Nickel, The StarPhoenix,
October 18, 2004
A year in the mayor's chair
has blurred the lines between policing philosophies for Mayor
Don Atchison, who was elected on a promise to make Saskatoon
safer.
Atchison pledged during last
fall's campaign to rid police officers of "softer"
responsibilities and flayed police commissioners who "don't
understand policing."
He promised to trade the existing
policing approach for the New York City "broken-window theory"
model, involving a crackdown on relatively minor offences, such
as vandalism, hoping the tough message would discourage more
serious crimes.
Now an overhaul sounds less
likely.
"In a lot of ways, I think
broken-window and community policing are quite similar,"
Atchison said in an interview. "Broken-window theory also
involves the community as a whole to report to the officers things
that they see."
City council has approved a
bylaw against spitting, urinating and defecating in public, but
there have been no public discussions about a different police
philosophy.
Atchison has not yet moved
officers out of the Little Chief station in Riversdale, as promised,
and has even endorsed the planning of a community centre in high-crime
Pleasant Hill.
"I haven't seen a whole
lot (of philosophical change)," said Coun. Myles Heidt,
who has served on police commissions with both Atchison and former
mayor Jim Maddin. "It's a hard thing to measure, I guess.
There are eight murders already this year, so it's hard to believe
you're winning."
Community liaison officers
are still performing the same duties they did a year ago, Heidt
noted.
The most public new police
initiative in the last year was starting up a street-crime unit.
Despite keeping the status
quo on policing approaches, police association president Const.
Stan Goertzen gives Atchison and city council high marks.
"I'm encouraged with the
leadership that's starting to show, (from) him and city council
in general," said Goertzen. "What's different is some
of the supports that we've needed are finally in place. This
is going to take awhile."
City council approved a police
budget earlier this year that authorizes hiring 20 more constables
this year and additional civilian staff to clear a backlog of
record-entering.
Atchison said he still wants
to get Little Chief's officers on the street.
"We're still working on
that."
Atchison is also eager to see
more officers on evening and weekend patrol, which is subject
to negotiations with the city police association. That move could
be seen as either a broken-window theory or community policing
initiative, he said.
"It's the public coming
forward and telling us we have these problems, we need them solved
right now. That's all part of it. When the community comes out
and gives us feedback, that's all part and parcel of community
policing."
Twelve months isn't long enough
to make it all the way down a politician's list of promises to
keep, Atchison has found.
One-third of the way through
Atchison's mandate, the longstanding debate over the Gathercole
building is over, smoking is illegal in most public places and
big projects like retail development at Preston Crossing and
a joint-use soccer centre in University Heights have been approved.
On the other hand, Atchison
didn't come close to freezing taxes this year and hasn't noticeably
sparked the unprecedented downtown population growth he targeted.
Atchison said his personal
aim each year remains a tax freeze, but said he can't promise
to hold the line in either of his two final budgets before the
2006 election.
Atchison has kept his promise
in part to change how the mayor works with the public and senior
administrators. The city is holding public meetings with each
ward, with Atchison in attendance.
A job title change for city
manager Phil Richards hasn't materialized. Atchison had said
he wanted to switch to a city commissioner system that would
allow the mayor to be more hands-on.
Atchison said he has been more
directly involved anyway.
"We've changed more towards
that (commissioner system). Still not as far as I had wanted
to go. But I guess there are compromises that have to be made.
Right now the system is working very well."
The second year for Atchison
and city council will be just as eventful, he promises. Key decisions
are ahead on building two new bridges, extending 25th Street
to encourage development in the warehouse district and overhauling
Saskatoon's transit department, following a consultant's report.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2004
Officers
investigated for actions during arrest
Lana Haight, The StarPhoenix,
October 16, 2004
Saskatoon Police Service is
investigating the actions of some of its officers amid allegations
that they used excessive force.
"There was obviously a
confrontation," said Saskatoon Police Inspector Jeff Bent
in describing the incident which began just before 9 p.m. on
Oct. 9.
Two officers were called to
an apartment on the 3700 block of Eighth Street in response to
a complaint that three young children weren't being cared for
properly, he said in an interview.
When the officers arrived at
the apartment, they spoke to a 37-year-old man who in turn assaulted
one of the officers, according to Bent. He wouldn't say if the
man was related to the children because the case is still before
the courts.
Other officers were called
to back up the first ones on the scene, although Bent didn't
know how many officers were eventually involved.
The man, arrested for assaulting
the officer, was taken from the building.
"Prior to being placed
in a police vehicle, he smashed the back window of one of our
patrol cars," said Bent.
The man was taken to Royal
University Hospital so his injuries could be treated. While there,
another incident occurred and the man damaged a doorway at the
hospital, said Bent.
A television news story broadcast
earlier this week included two people who said the officers used
excessive force in restraining the man.
Saskatoon Police Service internal
investigators have contacted the man who was arrested and are
in the process of interviewing him and other witnesses, says
Bent.
"We have also received
a number of phone calls from individuals saying that the incident
as described on CTV that particular night was not what took place.
So, we have some contradictory accounts of what took place,"
he said.
After Saskatoon police finish
the internal investigation, the report is reviewed by the provincial
police commissioner who will decide if charges should be laid
against the officers involved.
Bent didn't know how long it
would take to complete the local investigation. The report will
become public only if the officers are charged under the Police
Act.
Bent says in addition to the
internal investigation, the actions of the officers will come
under scrutiny when the man who is facing one charge of assaulting
a police officer and two charges of mischief causing damage under
$5,000 goes through the court system. He will appear in provincial
court next week.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2004
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Truth can never be
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