Police redeployment means more front-line officers in Regina

There will be 20 more police officers patrolling Regina’s streets next year and it won’t cost the taxpayer any money.

Knowing the difficult budget decisions facing the city, Regina Police Service (RPS) Chief Evan Bray didn’t think there would be any extra in the pot.

So instead, he conducted an internal review to ensure that every officer was deployed in the right area.

“We’ve made a couple of hard decisions,” Bray said during a taped interview with 980 CJME. “We’ve moved a couple of sections, where you know we’re saying ‘OK we’re not going to be having this specialized section, (so) we’re going to move these officers back to the front-line’. Every weekend of the year we have additional resources on the weekend because of this redeployment that we’ve done.”

Bray believes the public wants a greater presence in the community and to have officers that people can get to know.

He added those officers can respond in a much more proactive way to any issues that neighbourhoods might face.

“For example, if garage break and enters are becoming a problem — what about stopping by houses or  talking to people on the street and say, ‘hey just so you know, we’ve been having a lot of  garage B&E’s here so we want you to be able to protect yourself.’ — I think that’s the role of police,” Bray maintained.

Bray said the citizens of Regina will benefit because of this redeployment and the fact it could be done using resources in house.