Sign up for the paNOW newsletter

Saskatoon Police Service centre of documentary

Sep 28, 2013 | 1:14 PM

The Saskatoon Police Service are featured in a new documentary set to premier in October as Police Chiefs from across North American gather for their annual conference.

The documentary will make its debut at the 120th annual International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference in Philadelphia.

Saskatoon Police Service Spokesperson, Alyson Edwards says Saskatoon's contribution tells a story about a police service that turned things around after going through some very difficult times with the community.

“And a community that had gone through some difficult times in its relationship with the [Saskatoon] Police Service,” Edwards said.

Edwards is referring to the fall out from the Neil Stonechild inquiry, and other events. Stonechild died from hypothermia back in November of 1990. A report from a formal inquiry into his death found that Stonechild had been picked up by police and driven to the outskirts of Saskatoon before his death.

Since then, Edwards says a lot of work has gone into fixing what was wrong with the force and rebuilding the relationship with the community. The documentary will show how the force has turned things around.

“A large focus was on building those relationships again, and making them healthy in the Metis and First Nations community, because that is where the trust suffered the most,” Edwards said.

Edwards said a change in leadership of the force has really helped turned things around, and the credit goes to current Chief, Clive Weighill.

In 2007, Weighill initiated a complete restructure and redeployment of the Saskatoon Police Service.

They brought in technology that introduced geographic capabilities . The City was split into three districts, and each of those districts had staff that were directly responsible for what was happening in their area. They were accounting for those events on a daily basis through “Comstat”, computerized statistical analysis.

news@panow.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow