P.A. Police Chief Patrick Nogier welcomed an announcement by Premier Scott Moe (far right) that the province would pay to add 17 officers to the force. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

Police services

Province funds 17 new police officers in Prince Albert

Sep 12, 2024 | 6:02 PM

If they can find them, the Prince Albert Police Service could begin hiring another 17 officers immediately.

The additional officers are being paid for by the province, as the government said more needs to be done to deal with increasing criminality brought on by drugs such as meth and its use in the city.

“A lot of the challenges that we’re seeing from a crime perspective in our communities, but at the very root of them is drugs. And as I say, the drugs that we’re dealing today with in our communities and our friends and our family are nothing short of poison, and they certainly aren’t the drugs that were in our community 10 and 15 years,” said Premier Scott Moe at Prince Albert City Hall Thursday afternoon.

Moe said the province is focused on helping people have access to recovery and that is why they are creating ‘complex needs’ centres in Saskatoon and Regina but at the same time, the government recognizes the need for more law enforcement.

The province will also increase the number of officers working for the Safer Communities and Neighbourhood (SCAN) program, doubling from 14 to 28.

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SCAN allows the public to call in concerns over residences that are known to house gang members or drug dealers and begin the process to have them evicted.

Those officers are based in Saskatoon and Regina, said Minister of Policing, Corrections and Public Safety, Paul Merriman, but they work across the province.

Merriman said that the provincial requirements for the additional officers is that they be front facing officers.

“These are not administration. This is forward facing, boots on the ground,” he said. Beyond that, the police service will decide how to place the officers.

“We don’t get into the operations of dictating exactly where the police officers go. We will leave that to the judgment of the Chiefs of police.”

The cost of the officers plus training them will all be paid for by the province. At other times, the city has had to fund the cost of training which can slow things down as they have smaller budgets and need more notice.

The announcement was welcomed by Mayor Greg Dionne, multiple councillors and P.A. Police Chief Patrick Nogier.

Nogier recognized that recruitment is a problem.

“We know that this is a competitive market. We know that sometimes you’re robbing Peter to pay Paul but what this announcement does is it forces administration, ours in particular, to create an environment that people want to work for the municipal police service,” he said.

Merriman said that he has asked the other municipal police services not try to recruit each other’s officers.

The RCMP in Saskatchewan are also facing recruitment challenges and are significantly short of the number of officers needed to staff the entire province.

He would like to see Saskatchewan services look to other provinces to recruit experienced officers and said they are also increasing seats at the police college.

One of the methods to do that is to have full-time college staff rather than hiring trainers as needed, which will allow them to add more cohorts.

The province has also committed to increased funding for the RCMP, said the Premier and some of that money can go to an expansion at Depot, the RCMP training facility.

They just need the federal government to kick in their share of the funding.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com