photo credit: Saskatoon Police Service
Contact Interviews
The number of contact interviews conducted by the Saskatoon Police Service continued on the downward trend in 2024.
According to a report presented at the Saskatoon Board of Police Commissioners meeting Thursday, just seven contact interviews took place last year, down from 11 in 2023. The number of contact interviews has been slumping since 2020 when new policies were implemented by the province. For comparison, 239 were conducted in 2020.
Contact interviews occur when a police officer determines an individual is in an area for no particular reason, their behavior raises concerns for safety, or the person is in need of assistance.
Most of last year’s interviews hovered around the three-minute mark and occurred because the person appeared to be in need of assistance. Four of the seven interviews happened in October, and all but one took place near the city centre.
PACT
The Saskatoon Police Service’s Police and Crisis Team was busier than ever last year, with a 25 per cent uptick in dispatch calls from 2023.
At Thursday’s meeting, the SPS stated that the demand for PACT, which deals with urgent mental health and addictions calls, is exceeding its capacity.
In 2024, PACT members responded to 3295 calls. The team aims to divert visits from both hospital emergency departments and police detention and was successful in doing so for 462 and 47 cases, respectively. These diversions resulted in approximately $380, 950 in cost savings.
Crime Free Multi-Housing’s Crime Prevention Services
A crime prevention team within the Saskatoon Police Service was in high demand in 2024.
The crime prevention services provided by Crime Free Multi-Housing were expanded from 54 partnering companies in 2023 to 70 companies in 2024. CFMH currently supports 1,344 buildings across Saskatoon and received 11,347 crime reports in 2024.
Also noted in the report, not a day went by last year without an incident related to a homeless person occupying or loitering in an apartment or condominium. Nearly 2,700 of these calls were reported, as well as an increase in violent crime and social disorder in multi-family building hallways and stairwells across the city.
