Reflecting on 2024 with Saskatoon Police Chief Cam McBride

The year 2024 brought both significant achievements and challenges for the Saskatoon Police Service. The city recorded 15 homicides, nearing a record high, with the last one on Dec. 18 in the Pleasant Hill area.

A notable success for the police service included the 93-day landfill search that uncovered the remains of then-22-year-old Mackenzie Trottier who went missing in 2020. Additionally, the service also benefited from a historic investment through the Saskatoon city budget.

650 CKOM reporter Mia Holowaychuk sat down with Police Chief Cam McBride who took on the role seven months ago to reflect on some key moments throughout the year.

Mia Holowaychuk: What has your experience been like during your first year as police chief?

Cam McBride: The workload is tremendous. The opportunities I’ve had already in this short time have been amazing. I have some projects that we’re working on that really, really excite me that I think will be significant contributions to our work and will impact the community of Saskatoon.

What projects are you excited about?

In 2025 we’re going to be implementing a pilot project where we’re investigating intimate partner violence in a different way. It’ll be a victim-focused approach to investigating those terrible offences and really looking forward to seeing the benefit to those who are victims of intimate partner violence.

Another thing that we’re doing is implementing a warrant enforcement team, answering the call from the James Smith coroner’s inquest. We will focus on warrants in the community and identify individuals who are dangerous and violent to ensure they are entered into the justice system as efficiently as we can.

The third thing I’m really excited about is our work around member wellness. We have been investing in our members in terms of making sure that we have good mental, physical and psychological support for them, and it is critical to care for our people. They do incredibly difficult work, and we’re obligated to look after them.

This year the City of Saskatoon invested a record $141 million into the police service that will be put towards units like air support. What can we expect?

I don’t know if the general or the average citizen of Saskatoon understands the incredible value that is wrapped up in our air support unit. They do absolutely critical, in many cases unbelievable, work from the sky. We believe in it so much we’re expanding it by adding another pilot to the program that will enable us to increase our flight hours by somewhere in the 25 to 30 per cent range.

It’s a huge value to the citizens of Saskatoon, their capacity to not only investigate crime and locate missing people, they’ve been incredibly critical when it comes to locating missing people who might be vulnerable in the middle of a Saskatchewan winter.

In 2024, the City of Saskatoon invested a record $141 million into the Saskatoon Police Service, some of the money will be put towards units like the Saskatoon Police Service’s air support unit. (SPS Air Support Unit/X)

We’ve had 15 homicides this year. We’re rivalling an all-time high for the city right now. What are the police doing with their work there?

It’s so hard to predict what’s going to happen. Homicides are often things that occur in the heat of the moment, and understanding how to implement any kind of preventative measures is very, very difficult.

When we entered into 2024 and saw the number of homicides rising quickly. It was incredibly concerning for us as an organization, and so we were looking very closely at things we could possibly do.

I’m so very proud of our Major Crime Unit. They do tremendous investigations. Our solve rate for homicides in terms of determining who is responsible is very high.

We do our very best to promote community safety and decrease the potential for homicide in the future.

Have we seen any challenges with the Emergency Wellness Center in Fairhaven?

We’re listening very carefully to what the community is telling us. The Fairhaven community has raised concern about the Wellness Center in their area, and we’ve been able to really engage with the Saskatoon Tribal Council to understand what’s happening to assist them with the things that need to happen in terms of controlling the outside.

We know, in many cases, individuals who are a cause for concern in the vicinity are not utilizing the services there. They’re not residents of that shelter but they’re part of a broader community of people who have developed there.

We’re patrolling the area with regular police officers and our alternative response officers who provide a really, really valuable outreach component. We’re also working in partnership

with the Saskatoon Fire Department in order to ensure that individuals are housed as safely as possible, and working towards helping them transition into housing or shelters as they’re available.

The Emergency Wellness Centre in Fairhaven.

The 106-bed Emergency Wellness Centre in Saskatoon’s Fairhaven neighbourhood. The surrounding community has raised some concerns, but Saskatoon Police Service has been patrolling the area with regular police officers and our alternative response officers, according to the police chief. (Lara Fominoff/650 CKOM)

One of the big stories this year and a major win for Saskatoon police was the city’s landfill search. Can you speak to the success you saw there?

It was unbelievable, honestly. I think it really came as a result of really great investigative work from some of our investigators, who are very talented at what they do, and then a search team that was predominantly organized through our public safety unit.

What kept coming back to me was a group of investigators who were saying, “We know where she is”, and a group of investigators who were telling me, “If she’s there, we’ll find her with full confidence,” and that provided me as the chief, the assurance I needed to know that we were doing the right thing.

When we located Mackenzie Trottier there was a mixed bag of feelings, right from such sadness to elation that we had been successful in such a difficult task, and that we had the ability to return Mackenzie to her family. It was a very powerful thing,

Police in Saskatoon search the city landfill for evidence in Mackenzie Trottier’s 2020 disappearance. (Saskatoon Police Service/Submitted)

There have been a number of bear spray incidents this year. What are we seeing there?

Around mid-year, we were worried that bear spray incidents in Saskatoon were going to hit the 300 mark, which is definitely the highest they’ve ever been. We’re already at 309 incidents of bear spray, and that’s where bear spray is the predominant weapon used. So in a circumstance where somebody has a firearm and bear spray, it’s actually statistically listed as a firearms event, not a bear spray event.

Although statistically, we’re sitting at 309 incidents right now, there’s far more bear spray on the streets than that. It is a big problem for us.

We’re talking provincially and municipally about methods to decrease the impact on the community. We’re looking at controls at the point of sale. We’re looking at ways to control how bear spray gets from that point of sale to the hands of somebody who would use it for a criminal purpose.

We’re looking at the appropriateness of penalties, and whether that penalty at the end of the day is a real deterrent, or if it’s an inconvenience, and not something that’s significant enough to change behaviour.

The City of Saskatoon has seen at minimum 309 bear spray incidents. They range from happening at Midtown Plaza to gas stations. (Saskatoon Police Service/submitted)

The City of Saskatoon has seen a minimum of 309 bear spray incidents. They range from happening at Midtown Plaza to gas stations. (Saskatoon Police Service/Submitted)

Editor’s note: The questions and answers in this interview have been edited and condensed for clarity.