By Government of Saskatchewan

Public Safety Partners Support Prince Albert Police Service in Responding to Violent Crime

Jun 3, 2022 | 9:22 AM

The Prince Albert Police Service (PAPS) is working with RCMP, other municipal police services and the provincial government to address crime and violence in Prince Albert.

Under the Crime Reduction Team’s (CRT) mandate to share provincially-funded resources, officers with the RCMP, Saskatoon Police Service (SPS), and Regina Police Service (RPS) are coordinating efforts in Prince Albert to address recent incidents of weapons violence and illegal activity.

This support was received after PAPS officers responded to a spike in violent incidents over the weekend, including two homicides on Saturday, May 28.

Chief Jonathan Bergen said the assistance from partner agencies is valued and thanked RCMP, SPS, RPS and the provincial government for their support and collaboration.

“This is a difficult time for our community,” Chief Bergen said. “The resource challenges we are experiencing and the rise in violent crime we are seeing has impacted the safety and security of residents and families. We appreciate the support from our partners and value the positive and collaborative relationships that have enabled a quick response to help our community.”

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Provincially-funded CRT resources are shared between communities and designed to deploy to anywhere in the province that is experiencing a surge in criminal activity.

PAPS has provided support to other agencies in various communities as part of this shared agreement. The CRT model is made up of nine teams across the province and includes members from both municipal police services and the RCMP.

“Our government is working closely with the Prince Albert Police Service and our other crime reduction team partners to address violent crime in Prince Albert,” Corrections, Policing and Public Safety Minister Christine Tell said. “I am proud of how quickly ministry officials and our police services were able to bring this all together and deploy these additional officers and resources to Prince Albert. This is exactly the type of incident that our Crime Reduction Team model was developed to address.”

From Thursday, May 26 to June 2, Prince Albert Police officers have responded to 1,210 calls for service.

This represents an 11.21 per cent increase over the same week in 2021, when 1,088 calls were received.

To date in 2022, the Prince Albert Police Service has taken 18,895 calls for service, an increase from 18,516 in 2021.