Sask. police chiefs association supports new bear spray regulations

The Saskatchewan Association of Chiefs of Police is throwing its support behind the province’s new bear spray regulations.

The new regulations are designed to restrict the possession of bear spray in public urban spaces, and will also prohibit altering bear spray in order to hide or disguise the product’s identity.

Under the regulations, police are now able to charge someone for altering a can of bear spray.

Rich Lowen, the chief of the Estevan Police Service and the president of the Saskatchewan Association of Chiefs of Police, said the regulations give police another tool of enforcement with bear spray incidents.

“Anytime you have something like bear spray in the wrong place — (like) in urban areas (and) public areas — that it shouldn’t be used, where it’s not meant to be used and can be used as a weapon, we are in favour of regulations for that,” said Lowen.

Lowen believes the regulations will make a difference in reducing bear spray incidents across the province.

“(The regulations) give police the ability to seize spray and to charge people with regulation offences,” said Lowen. “I think it will make a difference. The extent of the differences will have to be weighed and evaluated over the next little while.”

The evaluations will look to see if the regulations are effective and that bear spray incidents are down, or if some retooling is required.

Lowen did say that despite having an evaluation period, there isn’t a set timeline that police will be following.

“We are always reviewing and always in communication with the government,” said Lowen.

The Saskatchewan Association of Chiefs of Police is also in contact with municipal and provincial police forces.

The hope is that with the new regulations and constant conversations with law enforcement around the province, the incidents of bear spray being used in areas it’s not supposed to be used in will be reduced.

Lowen said it’s important to remove bear spray from public urban areas, citing incidents from last year involving public pools, schools, a mall and the Saskatoon Exhibition.

“(Those are areas) where you know that there’s not going to be a bear walking through,” said Lowen. “We know that it’s not there for the right reason. We know it’s not there to be used for a legitimate purpose.”

Over the last five years in Saskatchewan, more than 3,000 bear spray incidents have been reported, with Saskatoon leading the way with 968 incidents.