POLICE PLAN
Human resources expected to be challenge
Human resources expected to be challenge for Cape Breton Regional Police.
As the Cape Breton Regional Police Service has completed a three-year strategic plan that will take it to 2021, Chief Peter McIsaac says human resources will be the biggest challenge facing the service during the period.
McIsaac shared the force’s most recent strategic plan with the CBRM’s board of police commissioners at a meeting this week. Under human resources, among the issues the CBRPS is facing include diversity, mental health resources, managing sick time and succession planning.
“You’ve heard all kinds of stuff across this country in relation to policing and first responders, i.e. post-traumatic stress disorder, and it’s real and it’s affecting our organization,” McIsaac said. “Sick time and accommodated duties is something not only affecting this police service but police services right across this country.”
A mental health initiative was begun under the previous strategic plan, he added, where officers have been trained and come back and educate other members on ways to be more resilient in the events they encounter
in their work.
In its most recent budget, the service eliminated a staff sergeant position to allow for the funding of a human resources manager. Although that position hasn’t yet been filled McIsaac said it could move ahead soon.
“I think that person is vital to work daily within our organization to manage people, to make sure they’ve got the supports they need that they can come to work every day in a very healthy environment and be a productive member of the police service,” he said.
The other three main areas mentioned in the plan are service delivery, partnerships and financial stability.
One area the service is looking at launching is online reporting of crimes. McIsaac said it has been launched in other areas.
“You need that technology to support that kind of stuff, so we looked at some other agencies around the country that had a lot of success in doing that and we’re looking at exploring that idea, well, I think we’re going to go more than exploring the idea,” he said. “We’re looking at a system here and we’re going to gradually go towards that, we’re going to crawl before we run.”
He said it would be more minor sorts of crimes that would be reported online and assigned to an officer for followup.
Commission member Dale Deering-Bert asked about the elimination of divisional boundaries. McIsaac said the service will always have divisional buildings but it makes more sense to eliminate those boundaries and create zones for response by its members so they can be efficiently dispatched where they’re needed.
The force serves a population of 95,000 across an area of 2,500 square kilometres. About 90 per cent of its annual $27-million budget goes to wages and other expenditures supporting policing, like vehicles, uniforms and training.
There are 167 positions are funded by the CBRM with the remaining 33 supported by $4 million in cost-recovery partnerships with the province, RCMP, Membertou First Nation and the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional Centre for Education.
This week, McIsaac released statistics that showed the crime rate rose in the CBRM most, mostly driven by property crimes, but it remains lower than provincial and national rates.