Multiple resources and tools regularly used by police in search for suspects

It has been a tense situation in the areas of Weldon and the James Smith Cree Nation over the past couple of days since the murders of 10 people.

People have been emotionally shaken after the events as a heavy police presence remains in the communities.

Even though it can be chaotic, Rick Ruddell — the Law Foundation of Saskatchewan’s Chair in Police Studies — says officers have to be detailed in collecting statements when calls first come in.

“There’s going to be some confusion. You’re going to get conflicting reports from people phoning into 911. And the police are just basically trying to collect as much information as possible in the initial stages of their investigation and their response,” Ruddell said.

He added once police determine how big a situation is, they will call in additional support.

Once they get that initial information, they’re able to reach out to other agencies to try and determine potential leads.

“So they’d have people looking into all aspects of the suspect’s life, who their associates were (and) who their friends are and they’d be investigating the circumstances of what happened,” Ruddell said.

With that comes a lot of information that also has to be relayed to the public.

In the past couple of days, a number of emergency alerts have been sent that may seem overwhelming and maybe a bit annoying, but Ruddell says police have had criticism for not sending them.

“I think that the police have learned from what happened in Nova Scotia — the mass casualty event in 2020 — and I think that they don’t want to repeat the mistakes that were made several years ago,” Ruddell noted.

He says when agencies work together, it helps build leads to suspects in helping close cases.