Police Chief Rick Bourassa said at Wednesday’s Board of Police Commissioners meeting that two Moose Jaw Police Service (MJPS) members are now included in Moose Jaw’s Crime Reduction Team (CRT).
CRTs in Saskatchewan deal with serious crimes including weapons, gangs, and drugs. When initially established, the six CRT officers for Moose Jaw were with the RCMP, with MJPS members not included.
Bourassa said that he had not received good answers from the Ministry of Corrections, Policing, and Public Safety on why MJPS was not included in the CRT for Moose Jaw, noting that MJPS works closely with the team. He said that conversations have improved with a change in Ministry officials.
“Over the past while, I’ve been engaged in discussions with both the commanding officer of the RCMP and the superintendent in charge of that area – that deals with Crime Reduction Teams,” he explained.
He said that in June, the decision was reached that two MJPS members would join the Moose Jaw CRT to work with the six RCMP members, and that the funding for the MJPS members would be reimbursed by the RCMP.
The two MJPS members have been working with the Moose Jaw CRT since August 1, out of the Moose Jaw RCMP’s detachment. Bourassa added that MJPS headquarters is a better location to work out of and are working with the RCMP to make that happen, with the potential for a capital budget submission for building renovations in the future.
“In effect, what we have now is eight police officers working full time on serious crimes and the issues that people are concerned about,” said Bourassa.
Commissioner Crystal Froese asked if the move would allow MJPS to fill a further two positions if those two are now being funded via the RCMP.
Bourassa said there were questions to consider about increasing the authorized strength of the police force by two more members. “I haven’t yet though through what my recommendation will be on that, but currently, we’re using it just through our existing strength.”
The Moose Jaw Police Service currently has an approved strength of 72 members.
Commissioner Doug Blanc asked to what degree the move to have two MJPS members on the CRT team would take pressure off the MJPS.
Bourassa said it won’t remove pressure. “But what it will do is it will bring more timely and better responses to some things that we just don’t have the resources to deal with now. The issues will be the issues, and they will stay there, but we will now be able to respond even better than we could.”