The Moose Jaw Police Service plans to increase its focus on several main priorities in 2024, including traffic safety, serious and violent crimes, online child exploitation and drugs.
The police service (MJPS) presented its proposed 2024 operating budget during the recent Board of Police Commissioners’ meeting. The agency also provided a report with several pages of data that executive members reviewed and discussed.
The agency plans to ask city council for a net operating budget increase next year of $1,181,355, or 10.26 per cent.
Traffic safety
The MJPS issued 48,654 traffic tickets last year compared to 34,620 the year before, an increase of 14,034 tickets, said Staff Sgt. Taylor Elder. This increase is because the agency added a member to each shift focused solely on driving violations.
There is a myth that the revenue generated from the tickets goes to the MJPS — this is untrue since it goes to the provincial government, he continued.
The goal is to educate and inform motorists about proper driving habits, which means officers don’t always issue tickets when stopping vehicles during check stops, Elder said. It’s usually one or two vehicles out of 10 that receive a ticket during those times.
The police service uses its lone motorcycle to enforce traffic laws — especially distracted driving — while it has applied to SGI for more funding to purchase a second one, he added. The organization expects to receive that second motorcycle next spring.
Calls for service
The MJPS tracks the number of service calls it receives each year and, since last year, has deployed more officers on foot, bicycle and motorcycle throughout the downtown area and parks, said Elder.
Since May, members have conducted roughly 150 foot-based patrols, translating into about 136 hours of cops on the beat.
“It’s been great to get out there and interact with people … (including) downtown individuals and store owners that need our help,” added Elder. “When an incident does happen downtown or anywhere in the city (including schools), they look more to the police and are more familiar with us … .”
The agency will continue and enhance that service in 2024, even though it faces a shortage of officers, said Police Chief Rick Bourassa. However, it will add more police to those patrols once recruits come from police college.
Internet child exploitation
In 2022, the MJPS’s Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit handled 33 files related to child abuse, and year-to-date this year, it has handled 41 files, said Supt. Taylor Mickleborough.
“So it is unfortunate, but it does highlight the necessity of staffing our criminal investigation section properly so we can properly respond to children … who are most in need and most vulnerable in our community,” he continued.
The ICE Unit had two investigators — Josh McNaughton and Sheldon McNaughton — but the latter was recently promoted and now leads a patrol team, leaving the former to handle the files. Yet, Mickleborough praised Josh McNaughton for his ability to keep updated on the work.
“We are committed to maintaining that (high) level of service in terms of ICE investigations … ,” Mickleborough said, adding the agency will ask the province — for a third-straight year — for more funding to add another ICE investigator position.
Drug investigations
The MJPS has “seen a dramatic increase” in the number of drug-bust-related projects, with investigators pursuing five projects last year and 11 projects so far this year, said Mickleborough. While these projects take months to investigate and complete, they are valuable.
The superintendent highlighted three projects that investigators pursued this year that connected to other cases other members were following.
In one situation, officers were watching a dangerous offender who they suspected was a drug trafficker. While building their case, the man committed an attempted murder, which enabled officers to arrest the man and recover $400,000 in fentanyl and cocaine and cash.
A second situation saw two teams of officers investigating a man for stolen property and possession of drugs. They eventually arrested the man and recovered 439 grams of fentanyl, cash, firearms and stolen property.
A third project saw investigators recover 110,000 illegal cigarettes worth $30,000, along with four firearms and $32,000 in cash.
These projects required many resources and a high level of collaboration because the investigative teams are small and everyone must pitch in in a mid-sized police department, added Mickleborough.
Violent and serious crime
Moose Jaw had a crime severity index (CSI) rating of 121 last year, which sandwiched it between Saskatoon and Regina for the types of violent and non-violent crime it experienced, said Mickleborough.
“It dispels the myth that nothing is happening in Moose Jaw. It shows we’re dealing with the same challenges and same issues that police services are all across Saskatchewan,” he stated, including recovering more firearms.
The creation of the tactical response team (TRT) has changed and modernized how the MJPS responds to violent situations and increased its ability to respond safely since it previously relied on other police services for help, he continued.
Moose Jaw’s violent CSI rating last year was 102, which placed it third lowest among major municipalities, the superintendent said. The MJPS had a clearance rating of 80 with its violent CSI, which means it solved most serious situations that it investigated.
So far this year, it has responded to 86 violent incidents and cleared 78 of them for a 91-per-cent clearance rate, Mickleborough added. The other incidents were either unfounded or people were unwilling to co-operate with police.
“Our members are doing an extremely good job of solving these, holding people to account and putting them through the courts,” said Bourassa. “… We will continue to do that (work) in the future with our current resource levels.”
The next police board meeting is Thursday, Dec. 14.
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