Q&A: Regina police Chief Bray on the year 2022 and the future

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In this interview, which has been condensed and edited for length and clarity, Regina Police Service Chief Evan Bray speaks to the Leader-Post’s Brandon Harder about the year that was 2022, and what city residents can expect to see from the force in the year to come.

Q: Last year, we talked about homicide numbers. Obviously, 2021 was a challenging year, in that regard. This year, we have seen a reduction. Can you speak to that?

A: When we’re talking about crimes against the person, any crime is very devastating. Things like homicide, they’re they’re often rooted in deeply historic social issues or challenges that are happening. Sometimes they happen with a combination of alcohol or drugs, and so it’s not always a pre-planned event. It’s a spontaneous fight or argument that breaks out and has devastating results. Firearms definitely play a role in that. What we do is, although it’s very tough to predict and prevent a homicide, we can try and focus on the things that we know aggravate the situation. So drugs, firearms in our community, those types of things we focus on aggressively through the year and hope that those efforts will make a tangible difference in some of those violent crimes and other crime in our community.

Q: Last year we spoke about the conditions that might lead to a reduced need for police in the community. You talked about there being a need for investment in social issues — things like mental health and addiction. In the city budget, we’ve seen there will be an increase in the number of police, so I assume we’re not there yet, but have we made any gains in those areas?

A: We have a provincial drug task force, for example, that’s doing aggressive work on everything from harm reduction to inpatient supports and service, outpatient treatment and therapy that’s available, and that work can have some lasting effects. That front end work really can make a tangible difference going forward. Our overdose numbers, although still high, are down from last year. That’s a very positive thing.

It really is about making those investments and making them constantly over a period of time so that we see long term change. Sometimes change, sadly, becomes generational change. You make changes now that invest in family structure that gives people stable home lives and translates to good community leaders and contributors tomorrow. And when I say tomorrow, I’m talking about when today’s youth become tomorrow’s adults in our community.

I do think that we are making some very positive steps there, but it’s like rolling a rock up the hill. The second you stop pushing, that rock is going to roll back down, and so you can’t ever stop. You can’t ever let up.

Q: You speak often about partnerships and the need for them. Can you speak about partnerships that were built or strengthened in 2022?

A: I think about the early part of 2022. We had an emergency shelter in our community and (Regina Treaty/Status Indian Services), they are an incredible partner for us at the Regina Police Service. They really took what I would call an instrumental lead, working with social services and some provincial government ministries to try and address that acute homeless need.

We had convoy protest in our community. We worked very closely with the Provincial Capital Commission, the provincial government and other partners; the City of Regina was an instrumental partner in that.

The James Smith Cree Nation incident was not something that any of us saw on the horizon. We we work very closely and effectively with the RCMP. The RCMP are regular partners for us. But I think that weekend, in that four or five day span, really showed us the ability for us to collaborate in a way that had real effective and efficient use of resources and maximize the impact that we can have on community safety.

My final example would be the Grey Cup. We see thousands of visitors come to our community for that event. We did not make one arrest this year. Our planning committee here at the police service, from a safety and security standpoint, spent months preparing for that. We had a lot of officers that were involved in providing community safety. It was really, truly a celebration and a festival, and we saw minimal risk, minimal safety concerns as a result of it. I think that just speaks to the importance of upfront planning and collaboration to ensure events like that go off successfully.

Q: Do you have any quantifiable goals for the police service in 2023?

A: I think we continue to push and focus efforts on the risk of firearms in our community and the work that we’re doing there. We’ve got some great collaborative integrations happening, not just with us but with other community partners on that issue. So, I think you’ll see more news releases and and police work dedicated to eliminating the number of firearms and the negative impact that they can have in our community. The same goes for drugs, so you’ll see that.

Through our budget over the last couple of years. You’ve seen us bring forward a growth plan. That growth plan is really about the demands and needs of our city, and people are saying that they want to see police officers in their neighbourhood. Those random, proactive patrols can be very effective in reducing crime in communities. Our goal is not to just have officers responding, call to call, but giving them some free time throughout the entire day, in all areas of the city, to be proactive, to be driving through neighbourhoods, to be stopping and interacting with people.

Just this week, our plane is operational and in the air. We’ve had already a couple of very positive success stories with that Air Support Unit. You’ll hear more and more of that as we move through 2023.

Through budget, we talked about the importance of taking care of our staff from a mental health perspective. We were able to get some budget dollars to put towards a safeguard program. The safeguard program is really about helping our members maintain their mental health. Staying mentally healthy for frontline police officers means that they’re delivering the best quality of service to the citizens of our city. So that is going to be an exciting piece of work. Again, not something that necessarily the public sees, but I am confident that the public will feel the positive effects of a workforce from the Regina Police Service that is doing everything it can to stay mentally healthy.

bharder@postmedia.com

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