Province gives $4.8 million to help targeted policing in Saskatoon

Saskatoon’s police service is getting nearly $5 million to help reduce gang violence, respond to mental health emergencies and catch child predators.

It’s part of the government’s annual funding for policing initiatives across the province. Chief Clive Weighill said the money will help fund 42 existing positions.

“Some will be in the organized crime unit, some are in the child exploitation unit, missing persons,“ he said. “We have a lot of integration across the province and without that extra provincial funding to top us up, we wouldn’t have those.“

The money will be used to fund targeted enforcement groups like the Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) Unit, which Corrections and Policing Minister Christine Tell said is an expensive unit to operate. It will also help the Police and Crisis Team (PACT) respond to mental health emergencies across the city.

According to the government, the Saskatoon Police Service was given the same amount of funding — $4.8 million — in 2014.