Saskatoon Board of Police Commissioners wants additional $200K for alternative response officers

Saskatoon Police Service (SPS) Chief Troy Cooper spent his last Board of Police Commissioners (BPC) meeting — after announcing his retirement in the previous one — addressing the force's desire for more alternative response officers (ARO's) and talking about a report detailing SPS's involvement with people with complex needs.

AROs work with vulnerable people to help them connect with support services.

They also transport some people who have been arrested and take complaints from citizens.

They are unarmed and meant to free up regular police officers to respond to more serious situations.

Ruth Reimer from the Pleasant Hill Community Association asked at the meeting to have two ARO officers placed into the Pleasant Hill area due to a high crime rate.

"Pleasant Hill has not been left further behind, but a decade ago, maybe decades ago, Pleasant Hill was left way back there with disproportionately high crime rates," said Reimer.

"When are you going to turn around, come back and invite us to join the same safety shield you're providing for the rest of the city?"

Representatives from Pleasant Hill have asked in the past for AROs instead of more regular patrol officers, saying there is no relationship being built between regular officers and community members.

The board voted to ask for a $200,000 increase in the SPS budget for the ARO program. If approved by city council on Nov. 22, the province would match and chip in another $200,000. If SPS gets the money, five new AROs would be added to the force, bringing the total to 15.

The police department is already asking for a $7.3-million budget increase in 2024 and another $6.8-million increase in 2025.

With the additional $200,000, the total proposed budgets would be $121.5 million for 2024 and $128.4 million for 2025.

SPS report on complex needs

The board also approved a motion to have the SPS send its complex needs report to the provincial government "as information on the challenges faced by individuals facing complex needs upon release," and have the board write its own letter regarding the report. 

"I think it showed the need to get the whole community to work together if we're going to find solutions to things like complex needs individuals and hard-to-house individuals," said Cooper after Thursday's meeting.

The report showed that of 5,558 people arrested and brought into SPS detention for being intoxicated, 52 per cent self-identified as homeless.

Case studies attached to the report detailed various people with complex needs who in many cases were committing crimes so they could have shelter.

One of them described a person — the report used a pseudonym, Todd — that wasn't allowed back into his shelter when SPS tried to drop him off because he was intoxicated, so he was brought back to the detention centre.

"On most occasions, Todd would ask officers to take him to police cells, as he knew he had a warm place to sleep and would receive food," said the report.

While in detention, "Todd would always be asking for more food as if he hadn't eaten in days."