Prince Albert's police chief Jon Bergen reflected on a challenging 2019 that saw a significant increase in violent crime and robberies. (Glenn Hicks/paNOW Staff)

By Glenn Hicks

police pressures

P.A. police endure challenging 2019 and will seek more officers

Jan 15, 2020 | 4:11 PM

Prince Albert’s police chief insists he has the professionals and the plan to combat increasing crime in the city. But he will also seek more officers later this year to bolster his department given the total call volumes are similar to cities with three times the population of P.A.

Jon Bergen spoke at a media conference Wednesday in which he reflected on a significant increase in crime in 2019 compared to the previous year, especially violent crime. Homicides went up from two to six and attempted murders saw the same jump.

“To deal with six homicides is unusually high for Prince Albert and we haven’t had many years where we’ve had a number near that,” he said. “That has absolutely challenged our resources and left the community asking ‘How safe are we?’”

Bergen insisted P.A. was “our community and our home, and this is not how we want residents and visitors to feel.”

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He said specialist teams were working alongside front line officers and he was confident they were making an impression as the department continued to target those responsible for illegal activity, much of it driven by drug addiction. These additional units include the new task force that made serious inroads into this summer’s break and enter epidemic, the P.A. Crisis Team that responds immediately to mental health calls, and the canine unit that will expand to four. Bergen said each of the police service’s four 12-member platoons would have these additional resources at their disposal going forward.

There was an 86 per cent hike in possession of stolen property offences last year at 166, and Bergen said that was an issue they were able to respond to rapidly.

The latest crime stats can be viewed here.

“Our possession of stolen property stats led to charges that nearly doubled compared to figures from the previous five years. I related those figures directly to the special task team to respond to property crime as it was trending up,” he explained.

The challenge of being both over-staffed and under-staffed

Police received 37,000 calls for service in 2019; that works out to over 100 calls every day of the year and Bergen said that’s the sort of workload facing a city with a population of 100,000, not the estimated 37,000 of P.A. He added those larger jurisdictions would typically have 185 officers. P.A. currently has just over 100 sworn officers.

“We have staffing challenges. Based on our population we’re over-staffed, but based on calls for service we’re well under-staffed, but we have the right people here working on our commitment to community safety,” he said.

Bergen said while he would continue to deploy his officers and staff to maximize their impact in various areas of crime, he also wanted the department to grow in numbers and would be making that request through the Board of Police Commissioners and city hall in the fall. He didn’t say how many more staff were needed.

Chief will request more officers

“To have our staff continuously responding to a higher workload than what the average officer does takes its toll. With more resources [and] more staffing we’ll be able to achieve more,” he said.

However, Bergen had a message when asked if individuals or criminal groups would see the stresses the department was under and try to take advantage.

“We’re a strong and healthy police service and we’re ready to respond.Our staff are well prepared,” he said.

Twenty-three of the P.A. Police Service’s officers are already funded by the province, and while acknowledging the big expense to taxpayers, Bergen said any future hires could not be expected to fall on the city alone.

“We’re looking broader than just the city of P.A. to see where we can all receive the support to have the staffing model that’s appropriate for the community,” he said.

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow