Submitted by Will Arscott 9^th November 2016

 

October 24th MEETING RECAP - Meeting and tour of new Saskatoon Police Headquarters hosted by Chief Clive Weighill.

 

The meeting was presided by President Jack

Greeter - Gary Kerr

Cashier - Peter Zakreski

Set-up -

Visitors and Guests -

 

O Canada - sung lustily in public meeting room with Canadian flag

 

Grace - Avis Hardy asked us to remember how important protective services are in our lives. This includes the police whom we were visiting, fire services, ambulance services and the military. Remembrance Day is this week and the sacrifices made should never be forgotten.

 

Visitors and Guests - None were announced. Out special host and speaker was Chief Clive Weighill

 

 

Foundation Dinner will be held next Monday at the Bessborough Battleford Room. The bar opens at 6:15 with dinner at 7:00. There are twelve Paul Harris awards to be announced as well as several members reaching new levels. Paul G believes he has a pretty good handle on numbers and believes it will be a good group.

 

‘Rock for RAP’ will be held on Friday November 18^th featuring the Harrison James Band. It takes place on the fourth floor of the Avenue Bldg. The link for tickets has been sent to all members. The goal is to raise $50,000 for RAP. With this large a commitment by others we should also support the event. Some have already volunteered to help and additional help is coming from Bank of Nova Scotia thanks to Joanne F. Canada Helps website has information on the event. Saskatoon Media Group is the media sponsor and Patrick Dubois will be the MC. This should be a good time and an important event for our RAP project.

 

Shirt order is moving close to being completed. Please see Joanne F soon to get your order in.

 

Grocery Cards: Gary Rusu will have all types available at the meeting two weeks from now. Christmas and the extra food costs will be upon us soon. This is a great way to pay these extra costs ahead of the holidays and benefit our club. We would like to see all members participate.

 

Joanne Fisher gave a report on the King George Community project. Our meeting on November 28^th is to be held at the school in conjunction with a work bee lasting from ten to maybe two in the afternoon. The work is to decorate the community room we are providing. Joanne promised to send out an email flyer listing needed items. The set-up for the Christmas fair is to be on Wednesday December 21^st with the fair taking place on Thursday the 22^nd. All members are welcome to take part. See President Jack. We have limited storage in advance for items provided. Please call Joanne if you need to store items ahead.

 

The next board meeting is on November 22^nd at the Saskatoon Club. All members are welcome. Let Jack know so we can take an appropriate space.

 

There is a district call for nominations for District Governor for the 2019-2020 Rotary year. If you want to nominate or make suggestions please see President Jack.

 

 

Sergeant at Arms: In the interest of time with the Tour there was no sergeant this week.

 

Happy and Sad: Same as for the sergeant.

 

 

 

Wayne introduced his friend of fourteen years. In the time he has known the Chief he was always found him to be compassionate, honest and straightforward. He has been our police chief since September 2006.

 

Prior to his appointment in Saskatoon, Chief Weighill had been a member of the Regina Service. There he build a modern and well respected department. He has been involved in all major areas of policing. Of particular interest to Clive are crime prevention, communications, research and senior administration.

 

Chief Weighill has extensive academic credentials in all areas of management. He is immediate past president of the Association of Chiefs of Police. He has also been involved in many other organizations in Canada and the United States. Here in Saskatoon, Clive is currently serving on our RAP board.

 

Over his career he has received many awards.

 

 

 

 

The Chief began be thanking us for visiting at the new police headquarters. The Chief is obviously proud of his new home which he believes was most needed and was built to take us well into the future.

 

A good example is the new complex of forensics labs. This will allow the Service to do things that previously were just not available. There will be savings as a result of the department being less dependent on outside labs and agencies. In the tour we learned that they have the facilities to do more than they are now doing and will do more in the future as their training catches up. Eventually they will be able to do DNA in house.

 

Another area is the inside garage. All cars are now stored inside. In the winter this saves much time as vehicles do not need to be warmed up. As the electronics in the patrol cars becomes ever more sophisticated, it is just not possible to allow the cars to freeze.

 

The police now have a proper indoor range where they can train twelve months a year. On the range they can fire pistols, shotguns and, in the future, carbines. They can also create simulations of many situations.

 

The location of the new station gives excellent (quick) access to the remainder of the city. It is possible there may be small satellite stations as the city expands but most services will continue to be centralized in the new building for the foreseeable future. These additional satellite stations are not needed now and will only be a small expense when they are needed.

 

The new station has a large welcoming entrance area and many meeting rooms for public outreach. One room is specially vented to allow Aboriginal ceremonies to take place within the building.

 

The building is built around an atrium which provides natural light throughout the building. The highest environmental standards were used throughout.

 

 

There has been a significant increase in the scourge of drugs in Saskatoon. Of particular concern is methamphetamine. Fentanyl is not yet common is Saskatoon but is having a big impact in other Western Canadian cities. So far this year there have been two drug deaths in Saskatoon. Crystal Meth is extremely addictive and creates huge destruction in the life of the addict, those around them and society in general. A huge amount of the crime in Saskatoon is meth related.

 

Calgary’s crime is up 25% in just one year while our increase has been held to just 2%. Officially crime is down by 40% since Chief Weighill came to his position. The Chief warns us that this may be deceptive as some low level crimes that were previously reported are not being reported. For example simple assaults may be dealt with based on a community statute (fine), many graffiti or minor thefts may not be reported. Though crime is down property crime is up 10%. This is a direct result of the meth problem.

The time and effort devoted to missing persons is becoming an increasing drain on Saskatoon police resources. Last year our police took an amazing 2,800 missing person reports. In some cases this is just a revolving file as some youth will run away from group homes as often as 50 or 60 times in a year. The police feel they must assign resources in such cases because youth are at such risk when on the street. In some ways it is a product of a larger problem where at-risk youth are assigned to group homes by social services. Once in the homes they are not well supported and tend to go on the run and become a police problem. Missing persons are the number three reason for requests for service.

 

Overall police handled 77,000 calls for service in the past year. This resulted in 9,000 arrests and the writing of 34,000 tickets.

 

Our police do not yet use body cams. They have been tried in Calgary and Edmonton and found to have problems. In short the Chief believes they need to be fully functional if they are to be used. If time is missing on a cam it can lead to questions that would not otherwise be asked. Chief Weighill is not against body cams if the technology can be made reliable.

 

Of concern to Chief Weighill is that the intensity of violence has seemed to increase. Assaults very often involve weapons and people are seriously injured. There are more stabbings and many more guns. Saskatoon police seized an astounding 900 guns last year. When this is adjusted for biker gangs there were still 600 guns seized. Pursuits have doubled so far this year with the vast majority involving drugs, guns or both.

 

The source of drugs in town is the native gangs and bikers. Some violence is the result of competition in the distribution. Others will move in for short times and then move on. Outside sellers are often easier to spot. All high schools have drugs and all types of drugs. This is a fact. Students must be prepared for this as a fact and it is impossible to prevent them from encountering the opportunity for drug use.

 

 

The US and Canada are very different countries and have a different culture around policing. Police in the US are concerned about police violence and have identified strategies to reduce it. The strategies mirror many of the things that have already been done in Canada. This includes better recruiting and much greater training particularly learning ways to de-escalate situations. Police institutions are also quite different in Canada. Canadian forces are much larger and are much less political. Our Chief serves at the pleasure of a Board of Commissioners and not just the mayor. In this way there is much less political interference. We also have civilian oversight and all cases of police violence are investigated. Reviews are done by provincial board and not by the police force that is involved.

 

 

It appears this will take place. This is not opposed by police. We were warned that this will be much more complex than just passing legislation. Many issues related to possession and distribution need to be worked out. The system for distributing medical marijuana is sufficient. There are about twenty producers and qualifying individuals can order online and have in two to three days.

 

Legalization can lead to anarchy if it is not controlled. Colorado is the poster for this. There have been huge costs and the hope is that a good part of this can be avoided in Canada through regulation. Legalization does not stop the illicit industry depending on the price point. This makes keeping marijuana away from youth an ongoing problem.

Other problems are friendship laws where I grow marijuana for your use.

 

There is no easy way to test for marijuana impairment except through a blood test which is problematic. Testing for a combination of marijuana and alcohol presents an additional problem.

 

Chief Weighill is of the opinion that marijuana can function as a gateway drug though this is hard to prove statistically.

 

The Chief was thanked by President Jack.

 

We then divided into two groups for our tour.

 

 

 

 

Next Meeting: