P.A. police never discharged firearms: report

According to a report released by the Saskatchewan Police Commission, the Prince Albert Police Service is one of only two jurisdictions in the province that did not use their firearms this past year.

Police Chief Troy Cooper would not tout his own officers over any other in the province, even though the report showed Prince Albert police have been fired at. He said only that city cops were quite familiar with firearms offences.

“I think we have a really well-trained police service across the province, I don’t think there’s a great deal of difference from one agency to another. I think when you look at the statistics where you will see a difference is from demographic changes and shifts across the province…in the region around Prince Albert we’re seeing more firearms. We see that in vehicle stops, we see that in drug seizures, we that where there’s gang involvement,” he said.

Cooper admitted his first reaction to the report was shock.

“There’s an alarming trend across the province now where officers are being asked to attend a call where firearms are present. We tie that to some root causes around gangs and drug trafficking. It’s not necessarily attributed to just Prince Albert, but a problem all across Saskatchewan,” he said.

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The report also shows the city has one officer for every 390 people. According to Cooper, this is good news.

“We’re really lucky here to have quite an integration with RCMP and other partners. We also have great commitments from the province to help out with any funding we need to keep the communities safe.”

brandon.graziano@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @brandongraziano