More funding for police needed: Police Commission chair

Asked to give a ball park estimate of how many additional officers he’d like to see, Bergen didn’t give a number.

“The more officers we have, the more we can do,” he said. “But we do also know that policing is expensive.”

The force’s total budget in 2019 was $21,429,950.

On Wednesday, Bergen acknowledged the Prince Albert’s rate of police per capita is high, but added “we also know our population is not what you see in our census reporting.”

The number of police officers per capita in Prince Albert is around 48 per cent higher than the national average.

Key arrests made

Bergen and Kimbley also addressed recent incidences of violent crime in the city and offered reassurance to the public that a number of steps were being taken to combat it. In particular, Bergen highlighted the reassignment of officers to a new crime suppression team.

There were three shootings reported in Prince Albert last week.

Bergen repeated most of the incidents are “not random” and a number are gang-related.

He said investigations are ongoing and key arrests have been made.

“There’s still more work to do, but there have been some key arrests made that I think are definitely going to progress the investigations further,” he said. “And we have optimism that will have a positive impact on the violence that’s been recently observed.”

Asked if the recent uptick in violent crime was part of a larger dispute or a “gang war” Bergen said, “I would say that there is conflict within a group but I wouldn’t consider it to be a gang war at this time.”

He added any violence in the community was not welcome and police would respond appropriately.

Editor’s note: a previous version of this article incorrectly stated that PAPS has 98 sworn officers, the service has 100 sworn officers.

–

alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom

by Alison Sandstrom

More funding for police needed: Police Commission chair

What's Trending