Photo courtesy Prince Albert Police Service
The Prince Albert Police Service has released its four-year strategic plan.
The city police force wants to provide a more visible police service, work with community engagement partners on key areas such as health and social issues and provide a professional service to the public.
Police Chief Troy Cooper said the police service needs to provide public safety in a way that is sustainable and forward looking. The plan is their way of setting a direction so they can check in regularly and see if they are still on the mark.
Cooper says a main priority of the strategic plan focuses on ethics, training and accountability of the police service.
“These organizational priorities will guide the delivery of services and are critical to our annual planning. The strategy is our performance measurement tool, and we will use it to ensure our success over the long-term. We need to provide public safety in a way that is sustainable and forward looking, and the plan is our way of setting a direction so we can check in regularly and see if we are still on the mark,” said Cooper.
Cooper says the police force has been cognizant of the growing diversity of the city’s population and has been addressing those needs within the police force.
“We live in a community that is Indigenous and just to represent the community, it would make sense to have that equal representation in our applicant pool. We should be able to reflect the community if we’re a decent organization, and we’ve been fortunate we have been able to do that,” he added.
Input for the new strategic plan was obtained from members of the public at ward and community consultation meetings as well as input from partner agencies and stakeholders, which Cooper says is important from a community policing view.
He says that in that aspect, community policing becomes more of a mindset in that the officers understand the community they are going to serve.
Cooper says even large metro centres like Toronto and Vancouver have community policing strategies and says that is still done in Prince Albert where officers can go to distinct neighborhoods and offer policing solutions for that neighborhood.
“Whether it be in the downtown core, the East Flat or West Flat, because every area of the city has really unique needs,” he said.
The strategic plan was officially adopted by The Prince Albert Board of Police Commissioners last week and is now being implemented within every division of the Prince Albert Police Service.