Regina police pursuits down in 2022, plane expected to further assist
Inspector Shawn Fenwick says the Regina Police Service is very critical of pursuits, due to the risk they cause in the community.
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The Regina Police Service carried out only 17 pursuits in 2022, which is less than half the number they were involved in the year prior.
In fact, the figure represents the lowest yearly number of pursuits carried out in at least the last half-decade, according to the statistics provided to the Regina Board of Police Commissioners (BOPC) before their monthly meeting Tuesday.
While the number of times officers encountered an individual attempting to evade police in 2022 also saw a five-year low, the city force still documented 221 such incidents. And annual crime statistics show more than 800 vehicle theft or attempted vehicle theft incidents were documented over the course of the year.
Of the 17 pursuits, 13 were found to have deviated from police policy with just cause and four were found to have deviated from policy with no cause. In all instances, the RPS took action to analyze and follow up on the occurrence, with its pursuit review board recommending coaching/training through the shift watch commander in relation to the “no cause” incidents.
“We’ve been very critical of these due to the risk caused by pursuits,” said Inspector Shawn Fenwick, who is the chair of the RPS pursuit review board.
How the pursuits are categorized has to do with a combination of factors, Fenwick told commissioners, including time of day, the level of vehicle and pedestrian traffic and the type of related offence suspected.
“It’s all about the risk that was created, or the potential for risk,” he said.
Interim police chief Dean Rae said the RPS policy around pursuits is “very stringent.”
“We do a lot of education with our front line members to ensure that they understand all the policies,” he said.
He characterized the number of evade police occurrences and “tire deflation device” deployments (55) in 2022 as “high.”
“We’re going to see those numbers start to drop off,” he told commissioners, referencing his expectation that the Aerial Support Unit will assist in this regard.
Fenwick noted earlier that the RPS police plane allows police to identify a suspect vehicle and pass off surveillance to the Aerial Support Unit (ASU) so officers on the ground do not need to follow or pursue.
Between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31, 2023, the ASU had been involved in more than 1,700 calls for service, saved ground units 221 trips, assisted in the recovery of 23 stolen vehicles and was involved in more than 350 arrests, according to the BOPC statistics package.
Rae told reporters that when the plane is involved, there is a “one hundred per cent success rate” in identifying or apprehending those who are involved in an incident.
“We have a great deal of success.”, he said, noting the plane has also helped police locate “vulnerable individuals.”
Officers who operate the plane make decisions on how to prioritize calls, he noted.
“If there is a serious incident going down, they will leave what they were working on and go to that, because if there’s community safety or a vulnerable person involved, they can go and provide a good eye in the sky to help with that call for service, and give a perspective that we don’t have normally.”
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