Police alternative response officers to be permanent in downtown, Riversdale
The alternative response officers, special constables who are unarmed, work mainly in the downtown and Riversdale neighbourhoods of Saskatoon.
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After a yearlong pilot project, the unit of unarmed special constables that patrol Saskatoon’s downtown and Riversdale neighbourhoods will be a permanent fixture.
The Alternative Response Unit, modelled on the province’s Community Safety Officer program but tailored to Saskatoon, officially started walking the beat last year, put in place to free up regular police officers for higher-risk calls.
The AROs are on duty between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., wearing uniforms that are distinct from sworn officers and using a distinct vehicle. The program has been consistently staffed by six people. The program’s introduction was part of the police force’s Riversdale/downtown safety plan.
A report to the board of police commissioners from Chief Troy Cooper recommends making the unit permanent.
Data showed the AROs exceeded initial project aspirations across all categories, the report says.
In a statement to the StarPhoenix, Cooper said: “The alternative response officers are an efficient way to have a visible professional presence downtown and in Riversdale. They are also a more appropriate response to many of the non-urgent, low-risk duties our professional police officers are currently handling.”
Riversdale Business Improvement District executive director Randy Pshebylo said the pilot was a good start and making it permanent is welcome, noting there’s a “complex condition that we’re trying to address with a concentration of social agencies in one area.”
After the closure of the Little Chief police station on 20th Street West — repurposed about 20 years ago as a community policing post — crime increased, he said, adding the district was promised officers in the area but they were continually drawn away to other parts of the city.
The area needed a “neighbourhood cop” — someone familiar to the business owners, who did not need a lot of explanation about where the problem spots were, he said.
“The business owners really like the fact that they know the ARO officers on a first-name basis and vice versa. It’s a more intimate type of community policing that the owners have been asking for.”
The AROs are part of the community and know some of the locals, he added.
“Everybody knows everybody and I think that’s probably the most important takeaway.”
Business owners want to see the AROs on patrol on weekends, and their hours extended into the evening, even by an hour, he added.
Between July 2021 and June 2022, the AROs responded 6,700 times, including for lower-intensity calls, and helped with outreach, such as providing referrals to services in the community, 389 times. They issued 1,249 warnings, laid 66 criminal charges, wrote bylaw and provincial offence tickets and arrested 80 people for public intoxication.
They also saved 12 lives, including the use of Narcan during overdoses and basic trauma life support, including chest compressions.
Alternative response officers perform other duties, including retrieving physical and video evidence that can’t be sent electronically, guarding low-risk crime scenes, taking non-violent arrestees from police detention to court and managing traffic at collision scenes, awareness rallies or charity walks.
The report is on the agenda for discussion at Thursday’s police board meeting.
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