Police in Saskatoon report a busy 2014 in the air and on the streets

Today, police in Saskatoon will present a report to a committee at city hall that offers enough hard statistics to support an argument that air support is an effective crime fighting tool.

Yet, even without the numbers, police say they’ve collected enough anecdotal stories from the men and women in the patrol cars on the ground to justify keeping the plane flying.

First, the facts as police see them. Sgt. Wade Bourassa is a pilot with the Air Support Unit, or ASU.

"We responded to the most calls that we've ever responded to, we've captured the most people, and we've flown the most hours,” Bourassa said.

Last year the ASU flew some 1,269 missions, helping with the arrest of 137 people. Bourassa said that in 74 of those cases, the arrests would not have been made without air support.

Other highlights from 2014 include helping to round up six murder suspects on the run from police in Regina, to flying reconnaissance missions for crews on the ground unable to get close to a train derailment and fire at Clair, Sask.   

Among those success stories though, there are some naysayers who speak out against all those hours police spend flying in circles above Saskatoon. Some have written to city hall with complaints about the noise and losing sleep.

Bourassa takes those complaints seriously. But at the same time he said that he can’t ignore the many stories he hears from police officers. Time-and-time again Bourassa hears first-hand testimonials about how having an eye in the sky helps police feel safer on the ground.

"Thanks for letting me know that bad guy was on the other side of the fence, he had a knife," he said. "Having the air support unit enabled us to capture that bad guy in a safe situation.”

Police pursuits in traffic rise

One key area where the air unit can help out is with pursuits. Police in the city gave chase 61 times, up from 49 in 2013.

A police spokesperson said the number of pursuits is up because the number of stolen cars also jumped by 11 per cent in Saskatoon.

Half of all pursuits last year involved stolen vehicles.   

Reports on air support and pursuits will be presented to the board of police commissioners today.