Chief Patrick Nogier at his swearing-in ceremony in late November. (Susan McNeil/paNOW Staff)

By Susan McNeil

Knecht report follow through

Lack of funding stalls PAPS efforts to implement some review recommendations

Mar 27, 2024 | 1:00 PM

Almost all the recommendations made after a provincial review of the Prince Albert Police last year have been put in place, and the remaining ones require more money than the service has available.

Chief Patrick Nogier told a recent meeting of the Police Commission that the recommendations it was possible to do have been done, except for those needing extra cash.

“We’re going to try to accomplish as many as we can but some of them have a fairly hefty price tag that’s associated to them and we have to be aware of that,” Nogier said. “We have to be aware that we can’t always go to the well and ask for more. But when we identify certain things that need to be (done), sometimes there’s a cost associated to those, and we’ll try and be as transparent about why that cost is.”

PAPS was subject to a review by the province following the death of 13-month-old Tanner Brass in February 2022.

Officers had been called to home once that day, left and were then called back by Kaij Brass, saying he had killed his son.

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The review found that the officers who attended the first time were negligent because they should have checked on the child whether they had a warrant or not.

Brass was convicted of manslaughter last month after pleading guilty to killing the infant after hitting him.

The review that came after which was also followed by the resignation of then chief Johnathan Bergen, made 45 recommendations that PAPS has been putting into place.

READ MORE: Prince Albert Police Chief Nogier starts tenure with goal to re-build trust

PAPS has taken the recommendations and put them into their operational plan where they had the capability, he said.

“If you look at a prioritization of those, which ones really are essential to getting us to a level of competency within policing for the promise of Saskatchewan as a municipal agency?” Nogier said.

As an example, having a data base and records management system that can hold the internal policies of the service while also showing a date and time stamp of which officers have accessed it so they track who has not and make sure the policies are read is one cost.

An associated cost is having the staff to input the information once the system has been installed.

Having the system is important, though, especially when PAPS is called to answer for incidents that involve officers in the community or events, like in-custody deaths, that happen at the station.

For instance, an inquest into the death of local man Jordan Norfield following a night in police custody called into question cell monitoring procedures.

Having the policies in a database and knowing the officers who were working that night would have answered questions raised at the inquest more definitively than the memories of staff.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com