Battlefords RCMP advocates education over enforcement

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Social addictions, enforcing a curfew and the crime severity index were just some of the few topics brought up.

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“I think our biggest challenges here are the social addictions and addictions issues and working together with all the agencies to effectively address those,” Sutherland said. “We know we’ve identified through some early analysis that in the downtown core six people accounted for 21 per cent of our calls. The problem these people have, it’s not a police issue, it’s a social addictions issue and other agencies should be dealing with that. But the default is we’ll show up, we’ll take them away, keep them overnight and let them go. That’s been the continuous cycle here for a long time and that has to stop.”

He said policing dollars are going toward issues which could be prevented in the early stages. Juvenile delinquency was also pointed out as one, but Sutherland said enforcing a curfew is always a challenge.

“We can take kids home they’ll be in the front door out the back possibly. There’s always the question of is a curfew something that would stand up to a test under the charter and depriving someone of their liberty based on a bylaw. There’s a lot of other things that I believe over time we can do. Things like the Boys and Girls Club to keep kids busy, different community activities, and engaging the youth and parents to try and solve the issue that way, education instead of enforcement,” he said.

After his presentation, some of the members brought up the crime severity index, and how North Battleford currently holds top spot. Sutherland said that the index is a complicated statistic, which takes several different factors into account which may sway the numbers.

“If you have a really… successful year in your reactive policing and you arrest and charge a lot of people and get prosecutions, that’s going to drive your number up. It’s not just based on reported crime. Another thing that influences it in this province when we arrest an intoxicated person, say on the street downtown, they’re arrested for causing a disturbance under the Criminal Code. More than likely, that has a higher weight than an intoxicated person who is arrested in another province under the Provincial Liquor Act,” he said.

As it stands, Sutherland said it’s arguable that right now North Battleford is the fourth largest policing department in Saskatchewan, behind Regina, Saskatoon and Prince Albert. He added officers are optimistic about their future endeavors, and that they will continue working with their partners to reduce crimes in the area.

“We have a phenomenal relationship with the city and the town here, out first nation’s partners, everybody at this detachment and I think it’s only going to continue to grow and get stronger,” he said.

Katherine.svenkeson@jpbg.ca

On twitter: @ksvenkeson