Weyburn’s Police Chief Jamie Blunden wants to have a good, close working relationship with the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division, and pledged that his officers will be available to provide that link.
He met with the Holy Family’s board of trustees on Wednesday evening, and he talked about his vision and plans for the Weyburn Police Service as the new police chief.
Blunden provided some of his personal history as a police officer, as well as explaining the background of where the WPS is at structurally, and where he sees the department going in the next few years.
He noted he came to Weyburn from serving with Winnipeg’s police service for 30 years, with 21 of those years spent on the streets in various capacities, including serving for a time as a school liaison officer.
He grew up wanting initially to play hockey, playing in Kenora and in Dauphin, Man., before coming to the realization this dream was not going to be fulfilled. Heading to university, he earned his bachelor of arts in criminology, and at the age of 21 began his career in law enforcement.
His wife is also a former police officer who worked with the ambulance service for six years before become a police officer.
Blunden noted while his police work was in Winnipeg, he and his wife lived 50 km outside of Winnipeg on a farm near a small town, so when the opportunity to come to Weyburn arose, they took it.
“Everybody’s so welcoming,” he said. “A small police service is exactly what we were looking for.”
They have bought a property in the RM of Weyburn, as they have two horses and a number of rescue cats.
Explaining the new strategic plan that he will be rolling out in 2021 for the WPS, he said he first sat down with the police commission and asked them where they wanted the police service to be in the next five years.
The goals for the new plan include “a safe community for everybody”, which will have a three-prong approach as they deal with the drug issue in Weyburn.
First is the criminal investigation unit, which will investigate and charge those involved with the trafficking of drugs; awareness and education, which will involve having an outreach to the schools; and intervention, where they can help people to get off of drugs.
“What’s close to your heart is education,” Chief Blunden told the trustees. “COVID’s tough, so how do we do that?”
The education aspect “is something we have to work on,” he said, noting in part this will involve some restructuring of the ranks in the police service. Among other things, this will include the creation of a school liaison officer, along with some restructuring of the platoons of officers who take shifts in covering the city.
One new position that will be coming onboard soon is a new deputy chief, as Rod Stafford has taken retirement from the police service. Brent VanDeSype will be starting as the new deputy chief in January, and was sworn in on Dec. 15 to this position.
With word from the school divisions (including Southeast Cornerstone) that at this particular time, officers can’t go into the schools, Blunden asked the board if they have input on how they might be able to provide education on issues like safety and drugs.
“If we don’t have involvement with the community, we can’t do our jobs,” said the chief. “If there are programs where you’d like to have us involved, I’ve got lots of presentations we can provide, maybe through Zoom or something else.”
Since he began in Weyburn, Blunden now sits on some boards of directors for various organizations as he seeks to be more involved in the community, and said in turn he would like his officers to be able to develop a good positive relationship with kids and staff at school.
“We definitely want you in the schools and to make connections with the kids,” said board chair Bruno Tuchscherer, noting that when he picks up grandchildren from school at St. Michael and sees a cruiser there watching the traffic, “the kids know you’re there for their benefit.”
“We’re definitely going to be working with you for sure,” added Gwen Keith, education director for Holy Family.
