City’s top cop pleased with Council budget

“The fact that it’s only funded for half a year this year isn’t problematic at all,” says Superintendent Shaun Wright. “By the time we send authorization to the provincial government and then through the federal government to increase those numbers by the time we get through the administration of creating those positions, it’s in the early summer anyway.”

Also, the Superintendent noted that the encampments, Moccasin Flats in particular, have increased the number of calls the local detachment has had to respond to.

“That encampment has become more entrenched over the last couple of years. The behaviors there have shifted in a disturbing manner. We’re getting a lot of calls of violence. Two shootings in approximately the last two weeks there. It’s just a bad environment. And honestly, I think it needs to be remedied as soon as it can.”

One of the arguments in favour of four additional officers was the sheer volume of cases per officer. Superintendent Wright says that may be due to the rough and tumble nature of the community, but also location.

“We’re the only center in the north. So all of the outlying communities for essentially two-thirds of the province, all of their issues end up here, be it for healthcare, mental health, crime. We are the only remand center in the north. So anyone who’s remanded in custody for serious crimes comes here. So they somewhat share the burden as opposed to us being up here in the north where we’re six hours from the nearest similar-sized center.”

However, he believes the caseloads handled locally are not a detraction to recruitment levels. In fact, quite the opposite.

by Cheryl Jahn

City’s top cop pleased with Council budget

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