From costs to conduct: Regina police provide Strategic Plan progress report

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Long journeys sometimes require travellers to stop and check their progress along the route.

The Regina Police Service (RPS) has done that, yet again, generating a report about the annual progress made on its 2019-2022 Strategic Plan, which was presented to the Board of Police Commissioners during this week’s meeting at City Hall.

The dense report touched on many aspects of police operations. Here’s a look at some of the items the report presented to the board:

Staffing and costs

In 2021, the RPS added new staff, including 16 police officers. A second deputy chief, and an additional crime analyst were positions approved in the police budget by city council, along with the creation of an Air Support Unit — something RPS Chief Evan Bray says will assist with the issue of street racing, brought up during the meeting by commissioner Lori Bresciani.

“We’re enhancing units by the use of crime analysts,” RPS Chief Evan Bray told media Tuesday, noting these analysts promote efficiency.

Analysts are slowly being moved into more operational roles within the force, and it’s becoming more common for them to be embedded into homicide or drug investigations, he said.

Two new canine officer positions were added, bringing the unit’s strength to eight. Additional officers were also dedicated to patrol duties.

The report says, for the year, the RPS net actual expenditures were $87,618,832, working out to a cost of around $387 per citizen.

Corrections Support Unit

In 2021, “discussions took place” to continue the development of what the RPS calls its Corrections Support Unit, which is meant to manage an offender that has been released following the court process.

“A lot of work that can happen in collaboration with corrections, in collaboration with probation services, to try and manage these offenders that are in our community, so that they’re not reoffending,” Bray said.

The report says the unit “will be integrated with a Probations Officer, a Director of Reintegration and Custody Leave, and a Mental Health Worker from the Justice Community Support Program.”

Allegations against police

In a section discussing public complaints and internal misconduct, the report offers a statistics table indicating how many “allegations” have been made against the force over the past three years.

For 2021, the table documents 85 allegations (21 pending), with three being substantiated. The report goes on to say “allegations may not be brought forward immediately and it will take time for an allegation to be investigated in entirety.”

For 2020, a total of 97 allegations were made, with nine being substantiated, whereas 2019 saw 168 allegations made with 18 being substantiated.

“If I can be so bold, there’s always measures being taken to try and reduce complaints,” Bray said, but noted there are “peaks and valleys” in terms of the number of allegations made against police and whether they’re substantiated.

“Year after year, I’m always impressed with how low that number is, in comparison with the large number of arrests we make, interactions we have, and ongoing daily connection and communication that we have with the public.”

Mental health and education

In 2021, the RPS made changes to the way psychological assessments are done on civilian and sworn members, introducing what it calls the Safeguard Program, which the report indicates now covers 10 units, up from three “high risk units.”

The program has three types of “safeguard checks.” First, to determine suitability when a person is selected for what the report terms a “high risk” position. Second “on an annual basis for the tenure of the high-risk position.” And third, exit checks are to be “conducted within six months of finishing the position, to facilitate the transition to the employee’s new role.”

“We ask police officers and others that work in our police service, to do things that most people would never dream of doing. See things, experience things, that most people would never even dream of experiencing,” Bray said.

The program is just one piece of the work, incumbent upon the force, that it does to keep employees healthy, he said.

Pertaining to public education, some 87 presentations were made to schools and school administrations by school resource officers in 2021, the report states, and the RPS Street Gang Unit made 16 presentations at schools throughout the city.

The RPS Community Engagement Unit “participated in” around 187 “initiatives and presentations” in 2021, according to the report.

bharder@postmedia.com

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