City hiring another Community Safety Officer

The city’s Community Safety Officers are able to help alleviate some of the work of the RCMP officers by completing some of the RCMP staff member’s extra work, such as follow-up assignments, administrative tasks, as well as enforcing traffic laws, and handing out tickets to offenders.

“A lot of it is filing the necessary reports and reacting. If someone was to call about a property crime that occurred in the night and they make a call in the morning, our CSOs can be the one to arrive at those properties to take the information and to report it, so that the RCMP can focus on addressing higher levels of crime,” the mayor added.

A CSO would not handle a crime in-progress.

Christine Tell, then Saskatchewan Corrections and Policing Minister in 2014 when the CSO program was introduced in the province, stated at that time that municipalities could hire CSOs to look after their “low-risk to harm, high-priority policing needs.”

Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) and Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) collaborated with police and officials in developing the CSO program that aims to assist or supplement policing services in Saskatchewan.

Bater said he appreciates the work CSO’s have offered the city in the last two years.

“This is all about creating efficiencies within local policing,” Bater said.

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW

by Angela Brown

City hiring another Community Safety Officer

What's Trending