Police activate emergency clause to address increase in calls, violence

The Saskatoon Police Service (SPS) activated a rare measure Monday to deal with a recent increase in calls for service and violence.

President of the Saskatchewan Police Association Dean Pringle told 650 CKOM the emergency clause allows administration to shuffle resources to support front line officers.

The move comes days after the city recorded its 14th murder of the year, and follows a crime filled weekend earlier in the month that included another murder, a beating and a shooting.

If you follow the news, you know how busy this weekend was for law enforcement in Saskatoon. As more officers were required to secure various scenes, members of the traffic unit stepped up and redeployed to assist with perimeter security and with taking calls. We are one team.

— SPS Traffic Unit (@SPSTraffic) September 22, 2019

“I think there’s a heightened level of violence in the city,” said Pringle, who called the action unprecedented during his 18-years as union president.

“I fully get why administration is doing it in the very short term, but long term we need some solutions. To be quite honest, we need some bodies.”

Pringle said a recent police operational audit concluded more officers were needed to handle the work load. However, the preliminary police budget for 2020 is recommending hiring only three new constables.

SPS has not said how many officers are impacted, or how long it will be in effect for. Pringle is hopeful it’s only temporary, but is not holding his breath.

“I don’t know if this emergency is going to go away unless we properly staff the front line. So this could be an ever-present emergency.”

Saskatoon Police Chief Troy Cooper said the measure was necessary not only because of the number of calls coming in, but the severity of them.

“When we’re having to tend to calls for homicide or aggravated assault, or serious calls like that, it consumes an awful lot of resources. We needed to expand the scope of people available to us when those resources are needed.”

Cooper also said  he believes this is the first time this measure has been taken, but it was needed given the circumstances.

“It’s an unusual circumstance I think and it’s something we hope we don’t have to deal with in the future. We had 10 homicides in a 90 day period of time, “said Cooper.

Cooper said they will continue to monitor the number and severity of the calls the police are getting before making any decisions on how long the measure will be in place.