A report was presented at Monday’s Regina Board of Police Commissioners meeting outlining the structure and work of the Corrections Support Unit (CSU).
The unit, established in 2020, aims to create more collaboration between the Regina Police Service, and other organizations like corrections and community-safety partners to monitor offenders who are released into the community.
“I think our corrections support unit really highlights the fact that there are a lot of offenders that are either residing in our community, fully in our community, or maybe in a transition facility. And a lot of times they come with curfews or with different conditions that need to be abided by,” said police chief Evan Bray.
He said the Regina Police Service (RPS) works collaboratively with other organizations to make sure those offenders are getting the treatment they need, but also making sure they aren’t reoffending.
Statistics were given from 2021 in the report about the amount of work being done by the unit:
- 68 dangerous habitual offenders arrested
- 98 National Sex Offender Registry condition verification checks
- 99 offenders surveilled to monitor if they were abiding by their conditions
- 85 reintegration leave reviews to provide a risk opinion if released
- 470 probation warrants and summons requests completed
- 41 unlawfully at large warrant requests completed
- 15 search and tracking warrant authorizations to assist in investigations of offenders
- 133 location investigations for arrestable offenders whose whereabouts were unknown.
Bray said there were probably around 4,000 warrants out for people in the community, and that the warrant strategy has probably reduced the number of warrants by about 50 per cent.
“This group that works in our corrections support unit, they won’t be responsible for all warrants in the city, but they will help us prioritize and identify those high risk warrants.”
Bray added there are only a few officers that work in the unit, but it’s more about the collaborations they have.
The report at the board of commissioners meeting said the CSU currently had two full time police officers, and three part time officers.
It also outlined that the original plan for the unit was to have 10 people on staff, consisting of six investigators, three integrated partners and an analyst.
“There’s room to expand that area, but I would argue that it’s not best expanded with just police officers. We need all of our community partners there to help us.”
Bray said a new office is on the way, and it will allow probation staff to work closely with the CSU.
“When we have our new office ready to go, which will be in the next year, our corrections support unit will have areas that a probation worker can come and work right with our team there.”
He added that it’s important to bring in those partners because corrections support is covered by a number of organizations.
Bray also noted that the staff in that unit are working closely with high risk offenders.
“If you speak to those officers that work in there, they’re actually building relationships in a way that they can pick up the phone and have a conversation with some of these high-risk offenders that are in our community.”
He said those relationships are a valuable tool to make sure offenders are getting the help they need, but also making sure they’re not reoffending.