2021 Saskatoon police budget calls for body cams, 4 more constables and 2 more Police and Crisis Team members

The Saskatoon Police Service has released its draft budget for 2021 which, if approved, would see the police force spend $115 million next year. 

The 2021 preliminary operating budget released online Wednesday is up by nearly $5 million from 2020, for which $110 million was earmarked. 

City councillors preliminarily approved the police service's 2021 budget last fall, but have the ability to tweak the final 2021 budget this fall, as part of the city's new two-year budgeting cycle. 

Police budgets have increased in recent years, as has the city's population. 

Police officers signed a new contract earlier this year which guaranteed a series of four salary increases from January 2020 to July 2022.

"That's impacted our budget, of course," police Chief Troy Cooper said Thursday. 

New positions

The service plans to add four constables to its roster in 2021. Total salaries are expected to increase by $3.5 million compared to 2020.

"Adding those four patrol officers really just maintains our police per population ratio that has been declining in Saskatoon over the last decade," Cooper said. 

A new civilian forensic accountant position is proposed to help deal with an increase in fraud-related crimes. Cooper said having an in-house accountant will be cheaper than contracting out the work.

Cooper also singled out initiatives that touch on the ongoing conversation about the role of police. 

Money is being set aside for a pilot program of "sustainable, low-risk policing" involving community safety officers. 

More PACT team members planned

Cooper said the police service hopes to double the number of Police and Crisis Team (PACT) members to four. The PACT units pair a police officer with a mental health professional to help people with mental health issues.

The PACT positions are funded through agreements with the federal and provincial governments.

Cooper said the police service is just waiting on the provincial Ministry of Health to confirm its participation. 

"I'm sure that they will," he said. 

Body cameras set for 2021

The proposed capital budget for 2021, which comes on top of the operations budget, is $2.6 million.

Of that, $491,000 would go to equipping officers with body cameras. The initiative was announced earlier this year. 

A police spokesperson said about 25 cameras are planned.

Cooper said that "in an age of surveillance and social media clips," the cameras could help "officers in the community have best evidence perspective on serious cases."

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Natalya Mason is a Black woman who participated in Saskatoon rallies earlier this year calling for an end to police brutality and systemic racism.

"Even with video evidence, even with bodycams, violence is … still often perpetrated against people who are marginalized, people who are oppressed, people who are in vulnerable situations," she said. 

"I understand why they do seem favourable, because they speak to an idea of accountability, of evidence, which, of course, we really love from a justice perspective.

"But at the end of the day, that doesn't prevent those situations from happening." 

Union supports move

Dean Pringle, the president of the Saskatoon Police Association, said the union has been calling for body cams for years, "as have the provincial and national police lobbies."

"We are 100 per cent in favour as we feel it can accurately and expeditiously clear complaints against our members and show that our members are actually doing tremendous work in the community," he said.