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Regina Police Service creates new four-year strategic plan

Jan 20, 2011 | 4:40 PM

The Regina Police Service will be policing itself after creating a new four-year strategic plan.

The document, released to the public at Thursday morning's Board of Police Commissioners (BOPC) meeting, sets a wide swath of ambitious goals for the organization.

That includes a 20 per cent reduction in overall crime by 2014 as well as improving the rate cases are solved.

Specific goals set in the enforcement portion focus on cutting into the use and supply of drugs, reducing street robberies, improving graffiti enforcement and removal, and monitoring crime trends.

But the plan is also meant to help the service work better internally as well.

“We're always striving to improve the levels of efficiency we have today and pursue excellence in what we do,” Chief Troy Hagen explained to reporters after the meeting.

To that end, he notes goals are set for programming, administration business, and communications with the public.

Hagen highlights plans to improve communications with the public, get better at updating victims on the outcomes of their cases, create an early intervention program focusing on kids 11 years-old and younger in order to keep them on the straight-and-narrow, and measures to speed up the service's recruitment and hiring procedures.

But Hagen also insists those goals aren't set in stone.

“We're not married to this thing specifically,” he insists. “We can make adjustments on the fly if we have to.”

He believes variables like staffing levels and the growth of the city could play a part in any changes that may need to be made in the future.

Mayor Pat Fiacco, who serves as Chair of the BOPC, agrees, saying the city has to get used to “the new norm” of growth and expansion Regina has seen in recent years.

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