Pleasant Hill Community Association calls for preventative response to disproportionate crime rates

A neighbourhood association wants the Saskatoon Police Service (SPS) to take a different approach to policing in the area by investing in prevention.

On Thursday this week, the Pleasant Hill Community Association (PHCA) is presenting a report to the Saskatoon Board of Police Commissioners (SBPC). It outlines crime statistics in the neighbourhood and suggests a four-year pilot program as an alternative to more police officers.

Glen Reimer is a PHCA member. He said he doesn't want Pleasant Hill to just be known for crime.

Reimer said on CBC's Saskatoon Morning that he would like it to, "be seen as a community of families and kids, and regular community, as opposed to sometimes Pleasant Hill gets seen as 'OK, that's the place where we've got a call for this or a call for that."

Saskatoon Morning9:56Despite only making up a small fraction of the population, 20 per cent of the city's homicides last year took place in Pleasant Hill

Now, the community association is speaking out, saying a new approach to community policing is needed. Host Leisha Grebinski speaks with Shane Partridge and Glen Reimer from the association.

Only about two per cent of the city's population lives in Pleasant Hill, but according to police data outlined in the PHCA report, 20 per cent of homicides, 33 per cent of attempted murders and 24 percent of robberies in the city in 2022 were in Pleasant Hill. 

The pilot program being suggested would involve adding two Alternative Response Officers (AROs) in a Pleasant Hill office, from which they would patrol regularly during the week.

ARO's are unarmed and specialize in helping vulnerable people connect with support services. They take complaints from citizens and also help with transporting people who have been arrested.

Shane Partridge, a member of the PHCA, is set to present the letter to the police board. 

Partridge said there is a disconnect between police and members of the community.

"Establishing relationships with the people of Pleasant Hill, with the community itself, getting to know us [and] allowing our residents to get to know them, that's something that's been really lacking in our community, and it has been for years," said Partridge on Saskatoon Morning.

Partridge said the community association has tried to build relationships with the police, but "largely they've gone unheard."

"The kids in Pleasant Hill will see police show up to arrest somebody, or to intervene in a conflict of some sort, rather than seeing them as a friend or as somebody that they can confide in," he said. "They're seeing the police as somebody that oppresses."

CBC reached out to SPS for comment on how they see the relationship with the Pleasant Hill community. 

A spokesperson said SPS doesn't comment on things headed to the police board before the meeting in question.

SPS said that new ARO positions are currently not in the 2024 or 2025 budgets because discussions are ongoing with the province in regards to funding, but that it would be discussed at the police board meeting. 

According to SPS there are currently 10 ARO's and two in training and the proposed SPS police budget — including anticipated revenues — is about $121 million for 2024 and about $128 million for 2025. 

Partridge and the letter argue the pilot program would save money in the long run compared to the current policing methods.