(file photo)

By Susan McNeil

Policing

Hard to get police recruit training slots, says City

May 22, 2022 | 1:35 PM

There are currently about eight open jobs in the Prince Albert Police Service, according to the city, and filling them can be challenging with limited spots at the provincial police training college.

The shortage means that the city’s Proactive Policing Strategy had over $450,000 extra in its budget but council wants the public to know that it isn’t because policing is not important.

“The quick answer to that is we can’t get policemen trained. There are no training spots and that’s a crime and a shame,” said councillor Don Cody.

He said the city needs to ask the province for more training spots and that Proactive Policing is important.

“We need these kinds of officers to help out, particularly in proactive policing kinds of activities,” he said.

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The proactive policing unit was first announced in 2021 and should have four officers dedicated to investigating crime trends, dealing with problem addresses, and helping patrol officers as needed.

The cost was set at $554,000 with the money coming from the policing base tax.

Mayor Greg Dionne, who is part of the Prince Albert Police Commission, said that there are multiple positions empty but four are in training right now.

According to the police service, there will be eight officer vacancies when two members retire at the end of this month.

The vacancies are spread out across the service, including in newly created positions like the two funded late last year by the province.

Another four recruits will start in August and four more in January 2023.

The $450,000 was unspent because the Proactive Policing Unit has only two officers when it should have four. Two of the current recruits in training will help fill those spots.

While RCMP recruits are trained in the force’s own facility, all 12 municipal and First Nation’s police services in Saskatchewan are under the oversight of the Saskatchewan Police Commission.

The commission runs the Saskatchewan Police College, which delivers two intakes per year and has trained an average of 22 officers in each intake over the last five years.

The number was bumped up to 30 students per intake in 2021 thanks to increased demand from municipal and First Nation services, but that may also change.

The spaces are divided up between all 12 non-RCMP services in Saskatchewan.

“Recently, the police college has received requests from across the province to train 40 police recruits per course,” said Sask. Police Commission chairperson, Treena Sikora.

“The Saskatchewan Police Commission is working closely with the Ministry of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety and the Saskatchewan Association of Chiefs of Police to respond to these increased training needs.”

As a response to the increase in demand, the Ministry of Corrections, Police and Public Safety, the Saskatchewan Association of Police Chiefs, and the commission are working on a training needs assessment that will look at what police services and provincial enforcement agencies need.

The commission knows that waiting until next year when the assessment is done may not help this year and is willing to be flexible, said Sikora.

“The Commission is committed to building upon the existing services provided at the police college where possible until any significant changes to law enforcement training in Saskatchewan are made,” she stated.

She also pointed out that recruiting new officers is a challenge for every force in Canada right now.

PAPS says it has five new recruits starting at the end of May when they finish training – and they are hiring.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com