Bikes and backpacks: PA Police chief says cause needed before interview can happen

The SPC oversees municipal and First Nation police services in Saskatchewan, which includes PA Police. Last updated about four years ago, their policy lists examples of good reasons for police contact such as there is no reason for a person to be in an area like a commercial or shopping district when everything is closed late at night, the subject’s behaviour or demeanor raises a concern or they seem lost, confused, scared or need help.

Reasons that don’t cut it include; being in a high crime area, actual or perceived race/ethnicity/nationality, colour, religion, age, gender/sexual orientation, disabilty or impairment, mental disorder, socio-economic circumstances, medical condition or any ground of discrimination prohibited by law.

That includes both the Saskatchewan Bill of Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

An officer’s “spidey sense” is not a good enough reason either. Sometimes they are correct, and sometimes they are not.

Officers must abide by the rules when interacting with the public. One of the consequences can be having a case thrown out by a judge. Another can be that a what starts as a verbal contact ends up in a physical altercation between officer and subject. The SPC is auditing all of their member forces and their interactions with people right now, in fact.

“Knowing an individual is responsible for something is completely different from approaching an individual who…is riding a bike or has a backpack on and then jumping to the conclusion that individual is involved in criminal activity,” said Nogier.

Police have an obligation to ensure that people’s rights are not unduly infringed, something Nogier said he has a personal belief in as well.

“I don’t want to live in a society that, by virtue of me being in an alley at 11:30 at night, or by virtue of me – and I’ve done it – I rode a bike with a backpack and I’ve rode a bike downtown and whether someone is of the opinion that I’m responsible for criminal activity, I don’t want that to be the reason I’m being pulled over and talked to and disrupted my freedom,” he said.

The public often has its own perception and at the same time, are less knowledgeable of the complexities of the law and want public officials to address their concerns.

Local realtor Brittany Marie Smith is often hired to monitor and clean out buildings downtown and said she sees a lot of criminal activity involving bicycles on security cameras.

“The issue is bicycles contribute overall to crime as sources of transportation to commit crimes, bicycle theft is huge and the public is upset about it. Bicycles make better get away vehicles from the police and are frequently used as such in the warmer months (bicycles can weave through buildings better than police cars),” she said.

She knows and agrees that police need a reason to stop people and talk to them but wonders if more can be done through provincial regulations or city bylaws.

“Perhaps the police and city council need to be called into action to do something, because bicycles are a problem. I personally have witnessed active bicycle chop shops in buildings, as a realtor managing and showing properties,” she said.

Nogier has made changes to how city police operate as a means to make them more efficient and better able to combat continual criminal activity. One effort is to ask residents and businesses to register their security cameras on a database that police can access so officers know where cameras are located. It is not a mandatory registration, but Nogier said they had strong uptake when people first learned about it.

Prince Albert Police would like people to register their security cameras to help officers investigating crimes. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

Officers are working to change some of their investigation habits from approaches like knocking on doors near the scene of a crime to checking the camera registry first. Like all new tools for a job, there is a learning and implementing component.

“The next evolution of that then is getting our officers to understand that that evidence is there for them to make them more efficient and start using it properly,” Nogier said.

“Once we have that corporate knowledge of what type of information is available, how it makes them more efficient in getting a job done, then it will really see its true benefit.”

In their next budget presentation coming in the next few months, PA Police will ask city council to fund two crime analyst positions.

In order to combat crime, data is needed to show trends and analysts are needed to understand the trends. That information can be used to make the service more efficient as officers know where the trouble spots are.

PA Police also have an online bike registry where people can register their bicycle’s serial numbers.

While sometimes the number gets ground off if stolen, some people are finding unique ways to attach identifiers to their bikes.

According the PA Police website, 1070 bicyles were stolen in the city between 2013 and 2023. Of those, 820 were found or turned in but only 73 went back to their original owner.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: susanmcneil@bsky.social

by Susan McNeil

Bikes and backpacks: PA Police chief says cause needed before interview can happen

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