Officers will work eight-day rotations across four northeastern Saskatchewan detachment areas.
The Saskatchewan RCMP plans to launch a rotational policing pilot this fall that will have officers travel from Saskatoon to work eight-day shifts in Pelican Narrows and three surrounding detachment areas.
Superintendent Amber Clark, officer in charge of the Saskatchewan RCMP’s Operations Strategy Branch, said the hub-and-satellite model will cover Pelican Narrows, Deschambault Lake, Sandy Bay and Creighton.
Pelican Narrows will serve as the central hub, with one management team supervising officers and coordinating resources across the four areas.
Officers assigned to the model will report to Saskatoon before travelling to their respective communities. They will work and live in the community for eight days, followed by six days off.
Two teams will alternate their rotations so another group arrives as the first team leaves.
Clark said the same officers will continue returning to their assigned communities instead of different members being sent north during each rotation.
“It will always be those same members rotating in and out,” Clark said. “That was something that was very important to the leadership and communities, as well as important to us for that community-based policing model.”
The RCMP expects the model to begin sometime in the fall. Clark said the organization needs time to complete staffing and prepare the required infrastructure.
She declined to provide the number of officers who will be assigned to the teams or the current authorized and actual staffing levels in the affected detachments, citing public and officer safety.
However, Clark confirmed the model will include an increase in positions to operate the two rotating shifts.
She also declined to confirm figures previously cited by Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation leaders, who said the Pelican Narrows detachment was supposed to have 15 officers but had only eight.
Clark said the model has already increased the number of officers available for Pelican Narrows and has attracted significant interest from RCMP members.
“There is interest, and I will say almost a waiting list, because there’s a ton of interest in the model,” she said.
Under the plan, officers serving the four detachment areas will shift to the rotational model rather than having one group of officers living permanently in the communities and another group rotating in.
Clark said Saskatoon was selected as the departure point partly because Prince Albert is already being used as a hub for other drive-in and fly-in policing arrangements.
She said the RCMP also heard from members who were interested in living in Saskatoon while serving northern communities through rotations.
“We tried to tailor it so that we could fill the model,” Clark said.
The RCMP consulted local community leaders, Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation and the Prince Albert Grand Council while developing the pilot, according to Clark.
She said the concerns raised during those discussions included the level, severity and volume of violence in the communities, along with the number of police resources available.
“Resourcing is a concern,” Clark said. “Certainly, that’s a huge one for us too, and we’re trying to think around how we improve that. This model was the answer at this time.”
Clark said the model could be changed as community needs develop.
She also said policing alone cannot address all the factors contributing to crime in northern communities.
Addictions, mental-health challenges, gangs and the recruitment of young people into criminal activity require work from police, governments and community organizations, she said.
“We have to look at community safety as a shared responsibility in each and every community,” Clark said.
The RCMP currently operates drive-in models in Deschambault Lake and Cumberland House, along with a fly-in model in Wollaston Lake.
Once the Pelican Narrows pilot begins, Deschambault Lake will be brought under the larger four-community structure.
Clark said feedback from communities already using rotational policing has included increased police visibility and engagement, fewer public complaints and a greater ability to recruit experienced officers.
Some of the communities had been difficult to staff before the rotational models were introduced, she said.
Clark acknowledged that rotational arrangements can be more expensive than traditional policing models. However, she said some of those costs can be balanced by reducing the need to relocate officers and their families.
“Sometimes you get what you pay for, and I think people are willing, in most cases, to have quality over cost,” she said.
Asked whether officers would receive community-specific cultural training before beginning their rotations, Clark said they would not receive training tailored specifically to an individual community.
She said cultural learning and community projects are included in the field-coaching process for new RCMP members, and officers are expected to build relationships and learn directly from residents while they are posted there.
Clark previously served in Pelican Narrows and said communities can form strong relationships with officers who make an effort to become involved.
The pilot is expected to operate for approximately 12 months. The RCMP plans to conduct evaluations before and after its implementation to determine what worked and what may need to change.
Clark could not confirm whether the evaluation, including information about staffing, calls for service, crime rates, response times and community feedback, would be released publicly.
She said the RCMP would look into whether those findings could be made available.
The RCMP provides 24-hour policing coverage across Saskatchewan, Clark said, but that does not necessarily mean an officer will be working inside every detachment office around the clock. Local management will determine the shift schedules.
Clark said residents should expect to see more officers and increased police visibility and engagement during the first months of the pilot.
“I think with us being able to staff, it is the first positive step to coming up with something that will work better for those four communities,” she said.
arjun.pillai@paherald.sk.ca
