The Government of Saskatchewan has announced a substantial $17.1 million investment aimed at enhancing neighbourhood safety across the province. Estevan will receive $357,000 of this funding to hire three new frontline officers for the Estevan Police Service (EPS). Jamie Blunden, the new Chief of the Estevan Police Service, shared his thoughts on how this funding will impact the force.
“I think it’s going to give us an opportunity to look at a couple of areas in which we want to bolster up. So I think it’s going to impact gracefully,” Blunden said. He highlighted several key areas where the new officers will make a significant difference. “When we look at drugs within the city, we have one drug officer. Could we bolster that out? That’s an area that we’re looking at. We also look at mental health and addictions within the city. We have one PACT officer right now and we have two SaskHealth workers. Is there an opportunity to look at that as well?” Blunden explained.
Blunden also noted the potential to create a unit focused on school and community safety. “We also look at sort of the incidents that have happened in the schools and within the community. Can we bolster a unit and put a unit in place to sort of look after the schools and the community? That’s one area we also look at,” he said. Additionally, the funding will help reduce the burden on existing frontline officers. “Any one of those areas that we put an extra officer in would certainly help out and greatly reduce the strain on the frontline officers,” Blunden added.
With Weyburn receiving similar funding, there will be a total of five additional officers in the southeast region. Blunden emphasized the importance of regional collaboration: “We do a lot of interaction with Weyburn and Estevan. We have a joint tactical support team and we look after each other that way. Having those extra bodies between both services is going to help both the services and assist with each other.”
Blunden also discussed the impact of funding for the Saskatchewan Police College. “Right now they only have the ability to put through 70 officers. You look at the 100 new officers that the province has just committed to. If you only have 70 positions in the year, it’s going to be pretty tough to get all those officers trained up,” he said. He noted, “The fact that they’re going to put that funding into the college is going to be able to double the amount of trained officers as well.”
In closing, Blunden emphasized the need for ongoing discussions with the Police Commissioners. “The funding is phenomenal and I think participating with the government is great. But we got to keep in mind that we’re still going to have to talk to our individual board of Police Commissioners and make sure they’re on board with where we want to go,” he said. “The fact that the funding is there is a bonus and certainly something that we want to look at. But when we talk about where we’re going to utilize them, I think that’s going to be a good discussion.”
With these developments, the EPS is poised to strengthen its capabilities and enhance community safety in Estevan and the broader southeast region.