Coun. Heather Eby no longer feels safe walking home after Moose Jaw Warriors’ games due to more crime, so she hopes supporting the Moose Jaw Police Service’s 2020 budget request can rectify those issues.
“The use of crystal meth is driving a lot of things in our city … ,” Eby said during a recent budget meeting. “Police officers make a very good wage. They make more money than some of us, for sure. I wouldn’t want to do their job.”
When police officers work nights, they are patrolling and working hard, she added. She participated in a ride-along in 2013 and found that to be an eye-opening experience. She had assumed she knew what officers faced, but admitted, “You don’t know what you don’t know.”
During the meeting, council voted 5-2 to approve the 2020 police operating budget of $10,129,563, which is an increase of $319,916, or 3.26 per cent, over this year.
Councillors Brian Swanson and Scott McMann were opposed.
Council unanimously approved a motion to direct $110,000 from the traffic safety reserve to the police service; this reserve is funded from net proceeds from the automated speed enforcement program.
Council voted 6-1 to provide $67,500 in capital funding to the police service. Swanson was opposed.
Council discussion
The feeling of safety in the community is gradually changing, something Coun. Crystal Froese now experiences while walking in South Hill. Froese, who serves on the Board of Police Commissioners, has also heard from residents who don’t feel safe walking through Crescent Park.
“From the police, they have been affected (with) such a high level of stress because of the opioid crisis,” she said.
Dealing with crystal meth brings on a whole new challenge since someone on it can be unpredictable, Froese continued. Furthermore, police have to stay with the individual at the hospital because of violent tendencies. Having to deal with this takes officers off the streets.
The police commission has worked hard to get the provincial government’s attention about how underfunded Moose Jaw is when it comes to having enough officers, she added. Moose Jaw might have more officers for the combined traffic safety program, but those officers spend 70 per cent of their time patrolling the highways and not doing municipal police work.
Swanson was also concerned that other Saskatchewan cities have more provincially-funded police officers than Moose Jaw, which has a disproportionate ratio of police officers per 100,000 population. He noted this is a reflection of how the Ministry of Justice approaches crime in those other communities.
His other concern was the police service wants to hire another officer in 2020, starting in August, but is using a method that charges 30 per cent of that officer’s salary next year and 70 per cent the year after.
Swanson added that the Moose Jaw Police Service consistently receives higher funding than anyone else, which he believes is unsustainable in a community not seeing population growth.
The Board of Police Commissioners has been advocating for the police service to receive a fair share of provincially-funded officers from the province, said Mayor Fraser Tolmie. However, until that happens, police here will continue to face stress while on duty, which can’t be measured by charts or graphs.
Council shouldn’t want to put the police service in a hole where its officers can’t deal with increases in crime and violent crime, which is what meth does to communities, he continued.
“We are in a corridor that goes from Edmonton to Winnipeg. We are a stop-off point. It is a challenge and stress for existing police officers,” he added. “That is why this request is being brought forward now.”
The final special budget meeting is Wednesday, Dec. 11.
