COVID-19, fentanyl and replica guns: Saskatoon's police chief looks back on a busy 2021

It's been another tough year for Saskatoon Police Chief Troy Cooper.

2021 marked the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic and with that came a number of challenges for the force. In addition, there was an increase of fentanyl and handguns on the streets.

Whatever the situation, the relationship between the police and the public is paramount, and it's one that takes continual work, Cooper said in a year-end interview.

"We know we have really strong community support overall, but that doesn't mean we don't have to put an effort in," he said.

COVID-19

COVID-19 continued to be a serious, disruptive issue for the Saskatoon Police Service this year and brought on staffing issues stemming from monitoring large groups of people protesting vaccine mandates.

"Over the summer months, the number of protests and crowd management that we had to address put pressures on our staffing levels," Cooper said.

"There was the investigation of the offences, but also just managing crowds. So you had potential for traffic impediment and there was potential for counter-protest."

The pandemic itself caused a considerable strain on police resources. About 46 of the force's 700-plus staff members contracted COVID-19 and had to be treated. 

"With delays and surgeries, with mental health stress, with people taking leaves, we've seen our frontline staff stretched extremely thin in 2021," he said.

Cooper is hoping that the situation will improve in 2022. The force has brought in more Alternate Response Officers to help deal with COVID-19. These special constables walk through the downtown core and talk to vulnerable, high-needs people, freeing up regular officers to deal with more complex matters.

The force also received money to hire eight new patrol officers in 2022, during this year's budget deliberations.

Cooper said that a shift in the enforcement of public health orders covering everything from gathering limits to mask wearing has also been helping to alleviate the strain on officers. Since that shift happened, Cooper said the number of COVID-19 calls to police has been cut in half.

"A lot of the responsibility for enforcement there is on vendors and not so much on police," he said. "We get called when someone is not compliant, but that doesn't happen often."

Homelessness and mental health

Chief Cooper said it's becoming increasingly apparent that the best way to deal with calls involving people who may be struggling with homelessness or mental illness is to partner with other agencies.

One way the force has done that is by having Police and Crisis Teams (PACT). Each team is made up of a patrol officer and a member of a mobile crisis unit that deals with mental health issues. In October, a third team was added, and Cooper said he's working on getting more funding to bring in a fourth team next year. 

"Rather than using police and enforcement as a tool to try and address mental health, we now have a team that has some experience and expertise in dealing with mental health in those systems. It's a better response."

The Saskatoon Tribal Council's Saweyihtotan program, which patrols the downtown core offering assistance to people experiencing homelessness, has also been very helpful, Cooper said.

"Police on their own are really quite ineffective when it comes to social issues like homelessness and addictions and mental health," he said.

"We need to have strong partnerships."

Right now, the three PACT teams are able to cover 60 per cent of the shifts in Saskatoon. With the addition of a fourth team, Cooper believes they would be able to have a PACT team available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Fentanyl problems

Cooper said fentanyl has become the dominant illegal street drug in Saskatoon, and it's changing the way police handle calls.

While crystal meth was once the dominant street drug in Saskatoon, it's been supplanted by fentanyl in the last several years, which is creating its own set of unique problems.

"With crystal meth, we saw a lot of people who had psychotic episodes, people who needed help for a mental health breakdown," he said 

"With fentanyl, we get called to overdoses. People are dying. It manifests itself in a different way."

He said drug seizures are up seven per cent in Saskatoon over the last year and fentanyl-related charges have increased to 190 this year from 113 in 2020.

Cooper said the provincial justice system is rethinking the way it handles drug cases. Saskatchewan has set up drug treatment courts in Regina and Moose Jaw, about 72 km west of the capital, in which the accused can apply for a reduced sentence if they successfully enrol in a treatment program over one year.

As well, he said officers rarely charge people solely with drug possession anymore, although they may lay those charges if it's part of a collection of other charges.

"Right now, our prosecution guidelines state that unless there's mitigating or aggravating factors, we won't lead the charge," he said.

"Or if we do lead the charge, the Crown is going to divert that into an alternate resolution other than courts."

Gun battle

Chief Cooper said there are more and more guns appearing on the streets of the city.

A total of 339 firearms have been seized by police so far this year.

Now, the Saskatoon Police Service has made it a priority to identify where the firearms are coming from and tries to cut off the supply.

"Five years ago, I would have told you with confidence that all of the firearms we're seeing are coming from thefts of long guns and they're cut down to be something that can be hidden," he said. 

"But now, we're seeing lots of handguns and many of them are replica handguns or airsoft guns."

Airsoft guns are air-powered guns that shoot metal pellets rather than bullets. The replica guns can be very convincing and closely resemble actual guns.

Cooper said roughly half of the firearms seized this year have been replica firearms, traditionally used by criminals as a way to intimidate people. He said in the field, police treat replica and actual firearms as the same thing.

"It doesn't matter if it's a replica or a real gun," said Cooper. 

"We don't know the difference. Some of them are incredibly hard to tell the difference and it's something we need to analyze." 

Cooper said the increasing prevalence of guns makes it difficult to practice community policing. He said officers are less likely to engage with the community when they think people might be armed.

"We try our best to become part of the community, to do lots of non-enforcement contact and to be less visible as an enforcement body," Cooper said. 

"But when you know that there's more likelihood of a firearm, you act more like you're tactical and that doesn't bridge a lot of relationships."

Body cameras

The Saskatoon Police Service will be rolling out a pilot program in 2022, bringing body cameras onto the streets for the first time.

To begin with, 40 police officers will be outfitted with cameras as part of the program.

"It's additional evidence for enforcement and additional perspectives and more information about public interactions with the police," he said. 

"They have shortened timelines for investigations, not just public complaints investigations, but general investigations as well."

Cooper noted that many other cities, including Calgary and Toronto have successfully rolled out similar programs.

He said Saskatoon police already use a number of recording devices, including in detention cells and in patrol cars.

Cooper said the program will be studied to determine how much a full roll out of cameras on every officer would cost.