It might be a “breathing” year for the Estevan Police Service, but Police Chief Paul Ladouceur said there will still a lot happening for the local police this year.
Ladouceur said a lot of significant changes have taken place within the service in recent years, with new divisions and new roles that have helped the EPS when it comes to helping front-line patrol officers, as well as major investigations and other crimes.
And there have been purchases to keep the EPS up to date when it comes to the technology used in solving crimes.
“We have incorporated so much change, and we want time for our members to certainly catch up and have some breathing room,” said Ladouceur. “It’s focusing on the work we do every day, and putting that nose to the grind of police work.”
The EPS will continue to focus on drugs, he said, and Ladouceur noted the detection of carfentanil in this area is a source of concern for the EPS. Local officers have been equipped with naloxone kits to deal with overdoses related to carfentanil, fentanyl and other opioids.
The EPS is also preparing for the legalization of marijuana on July 1.
“There’s nothing to say that this is not going to happen, so how do we best deal with that,” said Ladouceur.
Local police will also take a much deeper look into interpersonal violence and domestic violence in the community
“We know there are incidents out there that aren’t coming to the attention of police, and we’re looking at why they aren’t coming to the attention of police, and what some of those barriers and holdbacks are for people in those situations,” said Ladouceur.
There are so many dynamics in interpersonal violence that cause people not to come to police, he said, including economic and familial factors.
Victims are often concerned about finances, the relationship itself and the impact on their children if they come forward, Ladouceur said.
“There’s so much in play when it comes to interpersonal violence, and we want to start looking at how do we work through those challenges that are holding people back,” said Ladouceur.
The EPS knows that people are seeking counselling services for interpersonal violence, but they aren’t coming to the police about it.
“It’s great if somebody can work through domestic issues, through counselling and things like that, but what if they’re not?” said Ladouceur. “At the end of the day, what if they’ve sought counselling or they’ve sought assistance from someone else, but the change stops there, and the abuse or the violence is still continuing.”
It remains a big challenge for police.
“We know things are happening out there, and much like sexual assault, it doesn’t happen in the public eye, or very seldom does it happen in the public eye. It happens behind closed doors,” said Ladouceur.
A couple of items that were projected for last year’s budget, but weren’t purchased, are still up in the air. The first will be the purchase of on-board computers for police cruisers, which are expected to create efficiencies for local officers.
The computers would allow officers to file reports from a computer in their police vehicles, and remain on the street.
Currently they have to return to the police station to file such reports.
The EPS will be visiting police in Brandon, Man., early this year to see how their system operates, and they will meet with other police agencies as well.
The laptops will also enhance officer safety, because officers can use the information on the laptops before entering a home or after pulling over a motorist.
“Part of it is the technological aspect,” said Ladouceur. “Certainly it’s not the want or need, or a lack of putting in the effort to get this up and running. It’s the technological side of it.
“We’re dealing with various computer elements and how we tie those computers together, and there have been struggles in that regard as far as how we’re going to make our computer automated dispatch work with our in-car computers, and things like that.”
The budgeted amount for last year was five computers worth $8,000 each.
The other looming change is the computer automated dispatch (CAD) system. The EPS would retain its dispatchers as part of the change to CAD, and dispatchers would still answer calls that come into the police station. But the CAD would mark the end of using pen and papers in the dispatch.
The CAD is connected to the in-car computer systems, and they have to link together at the same time, so it’s an all-or-nothing upgrade.
“It’s not like it’s a whole separate entity, because it all flows through the same computer system,” said Ladouceur.
The EPS will also purchase at least one new police vehicle this year, to replace vehicles that are near the end of their life cycle.
“The vehicles that we operate as a police service are among the most important pieces of equipment that we can have, because that’s what gets the officers to your door,” said Ladouceur. “So I’m not a fan of running police cars to the ground, because when that emergency call comes in, and having an officer jump in their cruiser and it doesn’t start, it just doesn’t work that way.”
A decision hasn’t been made on the future of the current police station, and upgrades to the police station were not included in this year’s city budget. There has been a lot of speculation on how the police service will handle the cramped quarters of the police station.
It went through its last expansion in the 1990s, and since that time, the EPS has experienced a lot of growth.
“We’re doubling up in offices in this facility right now,” said Ladouceur. “Offices that were small and designed for one person at best, in some cases we have two or three people working out of them.”
Any expansion would need to be moderate in nature, he said, and it wouldn’t be realistic to build a new police station at this time.
The future of the police station has been discussed by the Estevan board of police commissioners, and it will continue to be discussed by the police board and by city council. But at some point, Ladouceur said something will need to happen so that the officers will have the space they need to do their jobs.
