The Weyburn Police Service are embarking on a new strategic plan for the next three-to-five years, most recently holding a community consultation session on Apr. 9.
The Weyburn Police Service are embarking on a new strategic plan for the next three-to-five years, most recently holding a community consultation session on Apr. 9.
Police Chief Marlo Pritchard and members of the Weyburn Police Commission met with a group of close to 60 members of the community, invited from a broad cross-section of every walk of life, to help with the setting of the new strategic plan.
Chief Pritchard said the group who converged on the Travelodge for the day-long session included some Grade 10 and 11 students and members of the SRC, board representatives, members of the clergy, seniors, oil company representatives, lawyers and business owners.
"We tried to get as many aspects of the community as we could think of," said the chief, noting the group first had a presentation on what the strategic plan was about, and then they took part in a round-table discussion to provide feedback to the police on a number of themes and trends that came out of the discussions.
The main purpose for the discussions around the strategic plan, said the chief, is to give the police department some direction for the next few years.
"The purpose is, we can't do everything, so we have to set priorities, exploring the processes to help us with those priorities over the next three to five years," said Chief Pritchard.
"It's a living, breathing document that will need to be checked into once or twice a year with what's happening in the community; you mold it as you go forward," he added.
The chief indicated he will now take the input they've received, sit down with the police commission board to draw up the plan, and then this will be shared with the community and put on the police's web page, which is even now being developed, and it will also be shared with the members of the community who attended the consultation meeting.
Asked what sort of issues came out of the round-table discussions, Chief Pritchard said there were four main points he felt were made by those in the discussions.
The first point was, to see increased visibility of the police in the community, and secondly, increased interaction and presence in the schools.
The third point was to make sure the police has the resources they need, and which keeps pace with the growth of the city.
"We need to have measured growth. This was a very high level theme, that we need to make sure as the community grows, the police force is equipped and can respond," he added.
The fourth point is the police need to have an enhanced use of technology, with analytics, and they need to increase their collaboration, tying in with partnerships within the community, explained the police chief.
"I thought overall it was a very positive day," he said, adding one of the feedback suggestions he's since heard is to hold a consultation meeting that's open to the public in general; this consultation meeting, while including a wide cross-section of the community, was by invitation and was not open to the community at large.
Chief Pritchard noted such a plan takes a lot of work, as he took part in a similar process in Regina, which was a much bigger project that included dedicated staff to work on the plan.
"This can't sit; I'd like to have a draft of the plan done by June," said Chief Pritchard, adding the hope that once it's in place, it can provide guidance to future budget requests for the police department (such as, for example, the point about enhanced use of technology).
"We can build a business case; there will be expenditures required, and I can go to the board and to council, and ask, 'how do we handle it?' It's really important when you're building the organization or building capacity, whatever you're trying to do more of," said the police chief.
"Dealing with the day-to-day stuff, we're pretty good with that. Because I've had experience doing this, this is a very valuable process," said Pritchard. "We're here to serve the public."
