Global News in conversation with Regina Police Service Chief Evan Bray reviewing the year’s with multiple events, tragedies and social issues.
Q. A lot of things play out over the course of the year in policing. What comes to mind when you look at 2022 year?
A. I feel like 2022 flew by fast, it was a busy year. We were still very much talking about COVID. We had the convoy protests happening in our city and across Canada as well. That was a big part of the early start of the year. We had an emergency shelter that was set up in the city and that was a piece of work that we were involved with a few other community partners in terms of safety there. And then drugs in our community, the prevalence of firearms in our community, and some of those challenges that happened throughout the year.
We had a couple of things that I think would be what I would consider anomalies. If you look at that incident that happened in September with James Smith Cree Nation, our community unexpectedly became involved in that in a big way. Grey Cup was in our community just recently. So all of those things, along with what I would consider day to day policing and community safety in our community, made the year run very quickly.
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Q. Let’s just touch on James Smith there for a second. Coming out of that, were there some lessons learned, on an event of that magnitude?
A. I think there were some real challenges in those few days but we also learned a few important things about organization, the ability for us to work with partners like the RCMP in a very swift and collaborative manner. It went very, very well. We had a lot of investigators doing the work through that time.
The importance of communication with the public was absolutely paramount. That was something that we had to focus on and and the public were demanding and wanting regular updates, understanding there a threat or risk in our community. So that was a big part of what we did there as well. And each time you sit back after an event like that, there are some lessons learned and there are some things that perhaps we would do differently. But ultimately, I think we were able to continually communicate with the public work well with the RCMP.
Q. On the drugs and firearms and gangs topic, the homicide rate this year is down from 2021, correct?
Q. 2021 was was definitely a very high year. In fact, I think it’s one of the highest in the history of our community. We had 15 homicides. So this year we are down from that. But, you know, homicides are a real tragic thing and I think we have to be careful. We don’t get lulled into the sense of all we’ve only had X number. Homicide is the most serious event that we can have from a community safety perspective in our community. It has devastating effects on the multiple people, families, community members. And so any time we can we can strive to try and make enhancements that will limit the number of serious assaults, homicides, those types of things know that’s an important piece of work for us to do.
Q. Just moving on to the budget that was just passed last week and the increase for the 2023 and 2024 and $5 million range. How important was it for you to get in the the mental health aspects that were brought in?
A.Yeah, it’s so important — I appreciate the fact you brought it up. You know, we we are very proud to police our community. We’re proud of this community. All of the incredible staff that work for the Regina Police Service are dedicated to this work. But we also know this work can take its toll. We’re seeing things, doing things, engage in activities that most people don’t. Even if you just take a look at the number of deceased individuals that our front line officers will be engaged or deal with through the year, including overdoses which have been happening at an alarming rate in our community that can take its toll mentally on our members. And so no different than how we ask our members to keep themselves physically fit.
There are also a variety of things that we can do as an organization to help them stay mentally fit. And so that safeguard program, which includes regular check-ins with a psychologist — those are important things to make sure that our officers are resilient and that we’re staying on top of their mental health, which is so essential and then giving incredible community service to the city of Regina.
Q. Dealing with the budget, there’s also a lot of talk in the community about supports, widespread social issues, homelessness and then the police budget is is just going to be getting more and more money. Where do you see that balance in the community? More money could be maybe put elsewhere?
A. Well, of course I think about first of all, the police budget has had a very strong relationship with the city over budget. We have been right around the 20 per cent mark of the city budget for decades. We haven’t gone higher than that. We haven’t got much lower than that. So you know where we were in the eighties and the nineties is still where we are today. 18.5 per cent of the overall net budget is is that proportionate share of the city? So although our budget has grown, so has the city’s and ours is not growing out of sync with that, which I think is important.
And the other thing that I say is investing in ways to help people from a social standpoint that is so important, that is is vitally important. The city has a role in that, but so is the province of the federal government. But we have to understand that it’s not an either or discussion. The budget increases that we are for every year are directly proportionate and related to the demands that get placed on our service from the citizens of. So we’re only asking for, for example, more officers because of the demands that we’re getting. Our officers are busy … It often means that we have to make choices or we can’t get the calls as quick as we would like. And that directly relates to the service providers.
And so it really is about finding that balance, being able to provide excellent service to the citizens of Regina, a service that they expect and at the same time work meaningfully with community partners to try and address some of those root causes that ultimately have a positive effect on the work that we do.
Q. Technology was talked about a lot as well over the budget deliberations. I’m just curious, where is the body cam conversation at this moment in Regina?
A. We’ve had that conversation with our board of police commissioners a couple of times. So we’ve done some studies on the positives of the program and some of the challenges with the program. Ultimately, that’s a decision that we will make with our Board of Police Commissioners. Obviously, it wasn’t captured in our 23-24 budget. I think it’s safe to say body cams will become very much a standard piece of equipment for policing across Canada that at some point some agencies are stepping into it earlier than others.
I think there’s a date and time we will as well, but I think we work with our board to understand we wanted to make sure our resources were at the point we were to want to sacrifice resources which equates to service delivery in exchange for bodycams. And so that discussion, it’s been a healthy one. It’s been a good one with both our work and our community.
Q. An update on the new headquarters?
A. So we’ll be moving into the new headquarters, I would say in quarter one of 2023. So really in the next few months we’ll start to see the transition into the new headquarters building, our front desk and … most of our public-facing areas will be in that building, which you will now access from Saskatchewan Drive. So we look forward to that. I’m going to say springtime.
We’ll probably have a bit of a grand opening ribbon cutting on that. And it’s going to be overall a positive experience for citizens in our city. I think the footprint, the physical footprint of this building allows us to better meet the needs that our community has and does so in a way that we can know work, I think, much more efficiently and effectively all in one location.
Q. Lastly, you’re just looking ahead to 2023 where our main focus points to, you know, just bringing that safety to the city.
A. (Regina’s) air support unit, which was approved in last year’s budget, is just nicely up in the air and operating. Now, we’ve had some really positive early successes with that project already, so I expect that’s going to continue to enhance public safety, minimize risk in the community going forward into 2023. We’ve got a lot of collaborative work dealing with the drug issue with the province of provincial partners and local partners. I think we can make some some tangible steps forward there.
The drug problem in our city is related to almost everything else. If you look at gangs, if you look at firearms, it all points back to drugs and addiction challenges. So coming at that from a few different angles, including harm reduction, those will make some positive impacts on our community and corresponding crime rate should be affected by that positive work as well. So it’s really about continuing to enhance safety, providing good visibility throughout the entire city, working on things that. I would call more quality of life crime so that from your car speeding and noisy vehicles, those types of things that affect your quality of life in your home, along with those bigger social issues that really, I think, drive a lot of the violence and the challenges that we see over here.
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