Police board wants data on calls involving social issues

Saskatoon’s board of police commissioners backed two motions aimed at moving forward the conversation about police reforms.

Mayor Charlie Clark moved the two motions at Thursday’s meeting. The first asks Saskatoon Police Chief Troy Cooper to conduct an analysis of how many calls made to police are tied to mental health, addictions and family breakdown.

“Police are left filling gaps in a system where those needs are not being met and they’re not properly trained or equipped or the right people to be addressing those concerns,” he said in an interview with the Starphoenix.

He said he’s heard in conversations and letters to the city that people don’t want police to be the ones responding to calls, or as frequently, when it pertains to mental health and social issues. However, he said simply trying to pull money out of the police budget when the city doesn’t control health, social services or housing budgets won’t solve the problem.

“It’s not an overnight fix. It’s going to require a much more co-ordinated approach,” Clark said.

Police Chief Troy Cooper said in an interview that most of the calls police receive are non-criminal in nature and they deal with issues of addictions and poverty. He said there may be addictions that lead to violence and addictions that lead to property crime.

He added that the intersection where police are involved and other social agencies are involved is often “blurry.”

“It’s important for us to have an understanding that just because it’s not necessarily driven by (a) criminal justice focus, there may still be a safety need for criminal justice intervention,” he said.

Cooper said the discussions officials are having are policy-related and are not “knee-jerk” reactions.

“It’s not possible for us to directly trade a police resource across for an after-school program; these are things that take time and they take thought. We understand that this is an urgent discussion, but our response has to be thoughtful,” he said.

The second motion sees the police board advocating to the province for the development of an independent serious incident response team model to eliminate police investigating other police. The board also will ask the province to consider independent investigators with attention to racial diversity, as well as measures to ensure inclusivity in the complaint process.

Calls for reform have come locally in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed in Minneapolis while being taken into police custody.