Police chief addresses concerns over fatal Sept. collision in review of 2021

Saskatoon’s police chief says communication with a mother who lost her nine-year-old daughter last September has improved.

While discussing a review of crime and policing in 2021 with John Gormley, Saskatoon police chief Troy Cooper commented on concerns raised about the investigation into the circumstances that caused the death of Baeleigh Maurice in early September.

Cooper told Gormley on Thursday morning he has seen the “heartwrenching” doorbell camera footage that was recently released of the “tragic” collision that took Maurice’s life.

“It’s something that created a lot of concern in the community, not just for the family but within our own service, with any parent or any citizen that saw that video,” Cooper said. “It’s absolutely horrific.”

Cooper said the investigation is active and has “remained a priority” for police.

Recently, Cooper met with Rochelle Dubois, Maurice’s mother, to address concerns Dubois had with communication between herself and Saskatoon police.

“We do have, I think, a really good process for communicating with family members when something like this occurs,” Cooper said. “But there’s no way to have a one-size-fits-all policy that’s going to work for everybody in every situation.”

According to Cooper, there were “two or three different avenues for communication” that “may have worked initially” for Dubois.

“But at the end of the day, it wasn’t serving her well and we were able to meet with her, talk to her about the case … about her experience and communicating with us and find different and better ways for her specific case to make sure she was informed, that she was aware of what’s happening and that she was heard,” Cooper explained.

Cooper said each case is different and while police have a good system for dealing with cases like homicides, communication in traffic review cases was due for an upgrade.

The changes made to the police communication process as a result are some Cooper feels have been improved — particularly with Maurice’s mother — and will benefit the Saskatoon community.

“I’m not suggesting that what we’re doing now is not going to continue to cause some grief or angst for different family members. This is a very sensitive, tragic sort of event and there are incredible emotions attached to it.”

Other concerns centre on the length of time the investigation has taken.

Maurice died on the morning of Sept. 9, 2021. Four months later, an examination of the scene is still underway.

Cooper said he couldn’t comment on the Maurice case specifically, but said generally, these delayed investigations are the result of a “supply chain breakdown” where outside organizations completing examinations or analyses are dealing with high demands for service and cannot provide results as quickly as they might otherwise.

“We reach out because we’re required to for an analysis done elsewhere and we’re sort of at the mercy of their capacity,” Cooper said.

COVID-19, specifically, has been a key interrupter for organizations doing this work. Cooper said fewer scientists and more demands for service have also contributed to a slowdown in receiving results.

“They’re doing their best to be sensitive to timelines and community concerns but that’s something that’s sort of outside of our control,” he said.

2021 in review

Cooper also shared information on the crime landscape seen in Saskatoon in 2021.

He said this is the time of year where police “really get to dig into some of those stats and … review what our experience was, make sure our programs and our resources are in the right place.”

Saskatoon police responded to 2,700 more calls in 2021 than the year before, Cooper shared.

Those responses were largely because of social issues like disturbances and suspicious persons, especially in the late summer and early fall.

Cooper said a lot of issues police deal with don’t involve crime, and those are considerations they must keep in mind when reviewing crime statistics and trends.

A pickup in drugs and dangerous drugs, in particular, was one trend police noted in 2021. For the second year in a row, police also saw an increase in the presence of firearms — Cooper called that a “concern” for police.

Overall, a five per cent increase in violent crime was seen, with no change to property crime last year. Cooper said violent crime can be a tricky category to examine because essentially any crime against a person can fall into that category.

He said some increases within the violent crime category aren’t negative. For example, an increase in sexual violence reporting in 2021, likely because of fewer barriers for reporting.

“We know it was occurring, just maybe there were some challenges reporting,” Cooper said, referring to time last year when COVID restrictions saw access to schools, hospitals and police stations limited.

Other categories, like the broad range of assaults, increased last year too. Cooper said those statistics are currently being examined to better understand why.

Homicides, however, were down by about half of what was seen in 2020 and a third of what was reported in 2019, according to Cooper. The chief said that could indicate a downward trend but recommended caution with that line of thinking.

“These are small numbers when we’re looking for trends and patterns,” he said.

Cooper said it can be more valuable to examine linkages and patterns behind the statistics to see if decreasing numbers mean the cause of a certain crime is being addressed.