(Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Frontline response

PA Police seek additional support due to COVID

Feb 26, 2021 | 12:00 PM

The Prince Albert Police Service will be asking City Council for $73,000, which will come from the city’s $2 million share of money received under the federal Safe Restart Program.

The recommendation was discussed during Thursday’s Board of Police Commissioners meeting. Police chief Jon Bergen explained the money relates directly to the unbudgeted costs for additional cleaning and janitorial supplies, as well as personal protective equipment (PPE).

“Our COVID expenses are substantially more than that amount,” Bergen said. “We didn’t prepare for a pandemic in our budget planning that happened in 2019 for the year 2020 like we were able to do for 2021.”

For 2020, the police service was actually under budget by $126,629. The result of this variance is that the operating reserve will be reduced only by $73,371. Given the fact that the COVID related expenses were out of the police service’s control, Bergen said they would like council to consider some options with the re-start program.

The city’s total share of the $70.32 million for Saskatchewan municipalities is $2,284,582. The funding provided by the Federal government supports efforts to protect health and safety, prepare for potential future waves of COVID-19 and facilitate the safe reopening of economies.

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Funding allocations are based on 2016 census data.

Impact from COVID

Also presented during Thursday’s meeting was a clearer picture of what the pandemic has done to the Prince Albert Police Service. To date, staff have been isolating and away from duty for a total of 341.5 days. This does not include the personal days that a member remains in isolation from a duty related exposure. And so far there’s been 11 positive cases within the police service with the majority being on the sworn member’s side. Bergen said staff deal with COVID calls every shift.

“Just this morning we had someone making a lawful arrest based on warrants. The person turned, coughed in the officers face deliberately and made the statement ‘I am COVID positive’ and was happy to share that with our member,” Bergen noted.

Police Chief Jon Bergen responds to a question from a board member during Thursdays’ meeting. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

Prince Albert’s Chief of Police has been very vocal in recent months about the need to move police officers up to the front of the line with respect to vaccinations. He has explained front line officers are the first responders to environments that are not controlled and so need to be protected so they can safely serve.

“One incident is bad enough but we have had 17 incidents where we have had multiple members, multiple times the same member, in isolation,” Bergen said on Thursday.

Board member Janet Carrier asked what the board can do to help the Prince Albert police service, to which vice-chair Greg Dionne replied, every Tuesday afternoon, he and the 16 mayors meet with the provincial ministers.

“We bring [the police vaccination request] up every time but they won’t budge because they say the data shows age [needs to be prioritized],” Dionne said. “Its an ongoing struggle.”

Post meeting remarks

Speaking with paNOW after Thursday’s meeting, Chief Bergen confirmed officers have tested positive through their interaction with people they arrested. He also explained the pandemic has had a mental impact on officers, as well as a physical one.

“They need to isolate away from their families because they have been out doing their jobs,” he said. “And because of that they miss work and they are unable to live their normal lives when they are outside of their regular duties.”

Bergen noted officers have access to PPE equipment like gowns, masks and gloves, but added time does not always allow for that.

“When you’re in a reactive frontline patrol response, you don’t always have the time to take the few minutes out to dress in your PPE. You have to act quickly,” he said.

Carrier also spoke with paNOW after the meeting and explained why she thinks the community needs to support the vaccination of front line police officers.

“They are handling a lot of cases in a lot of different areas in the city and they could be spreading it,” she said.

With respect to the number of officers who did test positive, Carrier said the community was fortunate the cases stopped there.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell