The Moose Jaw Board of Police Commissioners recently adopted the Moose Jaw Police Service’s 2025 operating and capital budgets.

Police expect spending of $16 million in 2025, an increase of $1.9 million from 2024, or a 13.47 percent increase.

For revenue, the police expect a significant increase. They are budgeting $2.9 million, or a 52.14% increase from 2024. Most of the revenue increase is for provincially funded officer positions.

“In this total, there are eight additional positions that the municipality does not have to finance. So yes, when you see revenue growth, that’s there. There are a few other smaller areas that are seeing some revenue,” Chief Rick Bourassa said.

Typically, the police budget takes up 22 to 23 percent of the City of Moose Jaw’s operating budget.

“Costs are on the rise and it’s true that the cost of policing is getting more and more expensive with investment in technology and things like that. But, it’s still trending,” Deputy Chief Rick Johns said.

One of the key initiatives in the operations budget is the licensing of in-car reporting and CAD (Computer Assistant Dispatch). Funds were established in 2024 to bring in-car and CAD reports to keep officers in the community rather than at the police station filing reports.

Police are also looking to fund cell upgrades for prisoner safety. This includes the gradual installation of biometric sensors in cells to monitor prisoners and alert staff to any emergency.

“This is one of our biggest obligations within the Moose Jaw Police Service cells. We’re bringing people into our high-risk cells and we’re looking at introducing and phasing in biometric sensors into our cells,” Johns said.

“This will allow the guards and officers in the station to be able to ensure that people do not go into any kind of medical crisis or medical event in our cells.”

Police are also looking at upgrading the technology in the communications center. This includes upgrading the answering system to allow the communications center to receive texts, images and possibly GPS location.

They will also move into Phase 1 for body-worn cameras. This will involve implementing the infrastructure for audio and visual capabilities and evidence management.

For strategies and operational improvements, the Moose Jaw Police Service is partnering with the RCMP to form an integrated crime reduction team of eight officers to address guns, gangs and drugs.

The MJPS budget will continue to address public safety, particularly around parks, public spaces and downtown.

“We introduced our frontline members to enhanced foot and bicycle patrols in our public spaces and parks,” Johns said.

“There has been a considerable presence in those areas and we will continue to do that as well as improve those with the introduction of staff into the organization and things like e-bikes and more robust patrols in wider areas of the city centre. area and city.”

With the addition of new provincially funded police officer positions, MJPS is increasing its budget to attract new officers to fill those vacancies.

“We have a significant number of vacancies that we anticipate filling in the future. We have developed a recruiting strategy not only locally but also provincially to try to find candidates who will be suitable to join our organization,” explained Johns.

The police will introduce a full-time professional standards officer in 2025. Previously this was done by a current officer who wore “multiple hats”.

This position would ensure that officers meet professional standards and that investigations are timely and thorough.

“The professional standards piece will be largely preventative. We won’t have it for next year; will be in the next budget, an early warning system that has been developed and is being used in a number of police services across Canada, and then attached to that is quality assurance,” added Bourassa.

Finally, MJPS plans to improve the community response and victim services to provide support to crime victims in the community.

Commissioner and board president Crystal Froese expressed concern about the $231,800 budgeted for 911 services that was covered by cell phone fees. She said the chief has been working with the provincial government to get clarification on whether the police department needs to pay that amount.

“There is still time for them to take it back because this budget has to be ratified at the city council. So there’s still an opportunity for them to allow us and the entire province to actually continue to pay for this service because that’s a significant amount of money in our budget that we could be putting toward more important things,” he said. said a frustrated Froese.

Bourassa said the 911 charges equate to more than 3,000 police officer hours, or two percent of the operating budget.

Commissioner Clive Tolley voted to pass the budget to send it to the city council, but felt the increase was quite large.

“I don’t think I’m happy with the percentage increase. I think it’s going to be too big, but we’re going to have a new city council that’s going to deal with that, along with the city administration, and they can make those decisions whether they accept this budget from our police commission or not,” Tolley. said.

Deputy Chief Rick Johns

MJPS capital budget

The Moose Jaw Police Service also presented its five-year capital budget to the Board of Police Commissioners.

Through a formula adopted by the council, the 2025 capital budget has a base funding of $85,000 and increases by $5,000 each year through 2029. The police general request for 2025 for capital projects is $344,000.

The budget includes a $50,000 contribution for the future replacement of the police department’s elevator as it nears the end of its life.

There is $10,000 allocated for the maintenance of the firearms range. Johns said officers are now trained to use carbine rifles, which are too powerful for police range.

“We have an agreement with the RM for a space outside of the city and with that agreement will come construction of berms and some safety features that will allow us to use that area more safely outside of the city,” Johns said.

A major capital expenditure is $149,000 for renovations to the second floor of the police department.

Since the new classroom opened on the first floor, the former classroom on the second floor has remained empty. The police want to renovate that area to create more office space.

“We really need some extra work space, particularly for the crime reduction team people, but also some extra office space because we have people working in spaces they shouldn’t be working in. In addition, we also need to create a suitable working space. for our Internet child exploitation investigators,” explained Bourassa.

The police have budgeted $40,000 to improve the security of the detention area. Johns said this creates better lines of sight for cells and capital upgrades to prepare for biometric sensors.

There is $10,000 to replace the sidewalk just outside the police station and $85,000 in infrastructure contingencies since the police department building is nearly 40 years old.

The Board of Police Commissioners unanimously approved both budgets.

The next step is to get approval from the city council during budget deliberations. The Board of Police Commissioners operates as a body independent of the city council. While the board can send the budget back to the board, it cannot dictate how the funds are spent.