REGINA — The Regina Police Service (RPS) is partnering with the University of Regina (U of R) to pilot a new mental health monitoring system.
The system will allow officers to do daily checks on their mental health.
RPS Acting Chief Lorilee Davies said the system will allow officers to build mental health resiliency.
“We're super excited about what that means for our frontline [workers], obviously, they're exposed to a lot more trauma,” she said. “So any little thing that we can do to help build their resiliency in relation to mental health is certainly exciting.”
Along with daily check-ins, the system will also track the progress of a frontline worker's mental health.
“[From this] we can understand that maybe there's some interventions we need to do on a larger scale for an officer,” said Davies.
The system is designed by a U of R team led by Dr. Nick Carleton.
Other frontline agencies have already started rolling out the system, including the RCMP and Saskatchewan Marshals Service (SMS).
The RPS will start rolling out the system in 2026 with their new recruits.
“The Saskatchewan Police College is actually building the system into their recruit training program, and so that for us was a natural fit in order to have those folks be the first ones.”
As for officers not admitting their struggles during their daily check-ins, Davies did mention it as a concern.
Davies is hoping officers can see the benefit of putting in effort towards bettering their mental health.
It's unclear how long the pilot will last and when the system will be fully implemented.
