Carbine rifles included in new Regina police budget
Police operating, capital budgets submitted to City Council
The Regina Police Service is including high-powered carbine rifles in its budget submission to the city.
On Monday, council received, but did not study in detail, the police service's $81 million operating budget and $2.7 million capital budget.
The capital budget contains $155,000 for emergency services equipment to support the introduction of carbine rifles to frontline police, plus upgrades to the emergency services training facility.
The proposed spending plan doesn't say how many rifles the police want to buy.
In June, the provincial cabinet approved a new policy allowing front line police officers to use carbines.
For years, the high-powered, short-barrelled rifles were used mainly by emergency response teams, but more recently in Halifax and other communities they're being made available to front-line officers.
Some police say they need them because they're increasingly going up against criminals with firearms more powerful than the guns they have.
The Regina police capital budget includes $1.7 million for computers, software, and video recording in front-line cars.
The police service will also spend $850,000 on new vehicles in 2016.
Council will have final say on spending at a later date.