A community safety officer program for First Nations people living in northwestern Saskatchewan continues to move ahead.
Two women from the program took oaths of office last week in a special ceremony in North Battleford.
These officers will now have the ability to administer such laws as the traffic safety, alcohol and gaming regulation and cannabis control acts on reserve.
Jacob Pete, an elder from the Little Pine First Nation who oversees the community safety officer program, said it is part of a larger process of moving toward local policing administered by on-reserve band members.
“We have problems dealing with drugs, alcohol problems and the elders basically said we need to do something ourselves,” he said. “RCMP are not meeting their commitment to basically provide us with public safety to a full extent.”
CSOs also have the ability to enforce the all-terrain vehicles, snowmobile, environment management and protection, tobacco control, trespass to property and mental health services acts.
They are authorized to carry a baton and spray and trained in the standard tools of use of force as taught by the Saskatchewan Police College.
Candidates are required to take a 40-hour cultural awareness and Indigenous issues training program and six-week community safety officer program at Saskatchewan Polytechnic.
Pete says another four First Nations community safety officers will take their oaths of office in the coming weeks.
(PHOTO: Rhonda Pete of the Little Pine First Nation, left, and Chelsea Weenie of Poundmaker Cree Nation, right, were inducted as community safety officers in a ceremony in North Battleford on May 26. Photo courtesy Laurel Sapp.)