A pilot program that provided the community of North Battleford with an alternative for addressing low-risk crime will not be making its way to Estevan any time soon.
Called the Community Safety Officer (CSO) program, it’s designed to free up the RCMP and municipal police and allow them to focus on higher impact needs in the community. The Government of Saskatchewan recently gave communities in the province the green light to apply for the program.
Several unanswered questions and a lack of an established CSO presence in southeast Saskatchewan, however, are some of the reasons why the Estevan Police Service and RCMP aren’t applying for a CSO yet.
“We have to be cognizant of the fact that a community safety officer wouldn’t replace an existing peace officer,” said Paul Ladouceur, Estevan’s police chief. “It’s always good to save money and do things more efficiently but we also have to keep our pulse on public safety.
“I’m cautiously optimistic and I want to see it roll out in other communities.”
He added the CSO program will be presented to the police commissioner and options will be explored for potential future implementations of the program.
“I’m never going to say never, but do I see it in the near future? Probably not,” he said.
A lack of adequate staffing has been a minor concern for the Estevan Police Service in the past according to Ladouceur, but he noted the Commissioner's board has recently done a good job of ensuring their numbers aren’t stretched too thin. For this reason, along with the fact that CSOs would be dealing with a large number of traffic stops, which also happens to be one of the most potentially dangerous scenarios for law enforcement, next to domestic disputes, are why local police will continue to monitor the program’s progression from the sidelines.
“All we have to do is look around where most officers are injured and its usually within these scenarios,” he said, noting the recent incident involving Kamloops’ RCMP Corporal Jean-René Michaud, a 13-year member of the force, who was shot while conducting a traffic stop.
The importance of making sure CSO’s are dealing with low-risk crime and are properly informed and equipped with appropriate databases, Ladouceur said, is top priority. It’s unclear whether CSOs will have access to a criminal database, but if they aren’t, they would be completely unaware that they may be pulling over a person wanted for murder or other serious crimes.
The police chief said if CSOs were introduced to Estevan, a “realignment” of current bylaw officers’ responsibilities could possibly take place, resulting in those officers eventually falling under the CSO banner themselves.
