Police chief comments on attempted murder at Evan Hardy Collegiate

Saskatoon Police Chief Cam McBride said on the Evan Bray Show Tuesday, they might need to consider adding more School Resource Officers in the future.

An officer was already on the Evan Hardy school grounds when the call regarding a Grade 9 girl being set on fire by a 14-year-old student was rung in. The response time from police, being roughly 30 seconds. Police have said the situation could have been much worse and could have been more out of control if they didn’t have an officer there right away.

What has it been like within the police service as this investigation continues to move along? 

MCBRIDE: It’s kind of rocked us a little bit. It’s one of those circumstances that is so tragic and affects so many people that when you deal with it in the moment, you do what you have to do, but when you take some time to reflect on the investigation and the impact it’s had, it really is devastating. And so I would say that’s kind of where we are as a police service right now is just, you know, contemplating what’s happened and certainly looking to identify what we can do different, or what we do moving forward, to ensure something like this never happens again.

Having that school resource officer at Evan Hardy was instrumental. Does this make you think maybe you need more? I think you’ve got seven in the unit now. 

MCBRIDE: We have been operating, I would say lean. When you consider how many schools are assigned to each of our school resource officers, and there’s always room for conversation to move that program forward, to make it a little bit larger. And I can say we have so much support from both the public and Catholic school divisions and a great relationship there. And so I think that may be something we have to consider in the future.

Chief, I say that not because we have to throw more cops in the school, but because of the important role that police officers play when it comes to understanding risk assessment. assessing the risk of being able to preemptively handle situations before they get there, because these Vitra assessments that have come to light, and we talk about on air a fair bit, officers, for example, are involved in those on a fairly regular basis, so that upfront work, I would suggest, would be important work for police to do. 

MCBRIDE: Absolutely, we’re engaged in that kind of work, and we bring that police kind of perspective and community safety perspective to the table, where educators and police can come together and brainstorm and talk about potential issues to overcome. And so we consider that are a real benefit that we bring to the school, and I think along the way, you know, often I talk about the complex issues that we deal with, not being solely a police issue, but something that we have to come together and work together To bring resolution. And this is a perfect example where, you know, it took a whole group of people now looking at it after the fact, to determine, you know, what might have gone sideways, what do we need to do to move forward, and how do we change the way we react and do things in the future? And so bringing all the minds together, all the experiences and training together, is so critical.

How much influence chief do your officers have that work in and with the schools on decisions on whether or not students should remain in the school?

MCBRIDE: You know, I would say we have some influence, but at the end of the day, we’re not mental health professionals and we’re not educators, and you know, we may not understand fully the level of supports that a student may have in terms of mental health supports or counseling supports. And so we can look at perhaps, the past history that we have with an individual and provide some sense of what one could expect based on what they’re seeing through that risk assessment. But at the end of the day, I you know, it’s a collaboration, and so I would say we’re a voice at the table, but not necessarily the determining factor.

Provincial Funding

What is the provincial funding announced last week going to mean for Saskatoon?

MCBRIDE: When I took the chief’s position, one of the things I realized I was going to have to do is address what I believe to be a little bit of a lean operation when it comes to our frontline response. And so I was looking to a five-year plan in order to augment our frontline staffing. But this announcement enables me to move that timeline up ahead significantly will be limited by the number of individuals we can get hired and sent to Police College and get them fully trained, but definitely, that financial commitment is huge for us.

Were there any strings attached to that? There’s the province expecting you will spend the money in certain areas with those officers.

MCBRIDE: They haven’t really dug into the operations and given us any stipulations other than the expectation is that they would be front-facing or community-facing members who are actively engaged in kind of that frontline police work and that they would be results-based. Driven, or that we would be seeing results from that investment. And so we’ve got lots of ideas as to how we’re going to incorporate these individuals into our service response, and looking forward to getting started in recruiting and hiring these people.

Civic Election

What are the crime stats looking like this year, Chief, compared to where you were last year?

MCBRIDE: The conversation always leads us to violent crime, weapons and social disorder, those are the things that are absolutely driving our call volumes up right now and making it challenging for our frontline staff because social disorder calls for service are often complex and trying to understand mental health issues that are contributing to a circumstance and then the violent crime and the weapons, results in our members responding with an increased level of vigilance. And that’s really hard on a person to have to maintain that level of vigilance day after day.

You’ve had some success moving some of your tactical officers when they’re not responding to tactical calls doing work on warrants, that seems to have been a good strategy in yielding some pretty positive results.

MCBRIDE: Absolutely it has. The James Smith coroner’s inquest resulted in some recommendations. One of those recommendations was that we focus on warrants and ensuring that violent individuals who are currently wanted on charges of violence, that they’re arrested and they’re brought for a court appearance. And so we’ve been focusing on that, and it’s yielded some really good results. We know that often violent offenders not only did they commit the violent act that led to the warrant, but they also continue to be violent in the community, and so having the opportunity to deal with them is critical for us.

Why are the police not releasing the results of the investigation into the death of 33-year-old Natasha Fox who was killed while riding her bike last year after colliding with a cement truck?

MCBRIDE: When we think about releasing information, we always talk about the public interest, and whether or not it’s in the public interest to release specific details of an investigation, and as a layperson or as a member of the community who doesn’t have an intimate knowledge of what happened or. What happened? It’s hard to wrap our minds around, well, I have a right to know, or maybe there’s something in there that I should know and I want to know, but taking a balanced approach and looking at the circumstance, looking at the intricacies of the investigation, and coming to a decision as to whether or not that information should be released. That’s a really, really hard decision to make, but it’s the decision we made, and we stand by it. Believe it’s the right thing to do.

Where do you find the balance between helping Taxpayers understand if it was preventable when changes to intersections are being contemplated? Do you think you will get to the point where you will release these details?

MCBRIDE: When we look at those types of conversations or commitments to make significant changes, particularly when they cost a lot of money, we would have a seat at the table, and we would be able to provide that technical advice from a policing perspective, based on what we’ve seen, based on, you know, even incorporating this circumstance into that conversation at a very high level. And so, you know, I think that’s the best place to perhaps inject some of what we learned from this tragic circumstance, but in terms of just releasing it to the public, generally speaking, we’re taking a cautious approach.

Is there a reason why, in this case, it’s different than another accident?

MCBRIDE: I think just out of respect for the victim, for the family, for anyone who would have a close connection to this circumstance, we’re not releasing that information. Looking forward, at some point, it may the balance may shift, and we may believe it’s necessary, but at this point, we’re just not there.

I’m going to give you a challenge. 30 seconds, a mayoral candidate, a council candidate comes up to you and says, what are your top five priorities that you think we should focus on if we’re elected to City Council?

MCBRIDE: Ensuring adequate staffing, ensuring adequate mental health and other supports for our staff here, addressing the fact that we have a very large number of homeless individuals with complex needs growing in the city, ensuring that those people have adequate shelter and ongoing support wraparound services available to them, and addressing violent crime through projects and through targeted enforcement.