Report recommends using civilians for some jobs currently done by Saskatoon police

Saskatoon police chief Troy Cooper says all 20 recommendations in an operational review merit close study by the service.

He is rejecting none out of hand.

"They sort of gave us permission to question things that we were doing," he said after the Boardof Police Commissioners voted to receive the report.

"There was nothing that I found that was ridiculous, and I thought there wassome substance to all 20 recommendations."

But Cooper saidthe recommendations will be tailored to fit Saskatoon.

"The solutions we arrive at might not be the same as the ones (the report authors) recommend," he said.

The reportrecommendsusing civilians for some work currently being done by sworn officers.

Cooper says it's an idea worth considering, but it will not simply be broadly applied.

"I think that would be a case-by-case analysis that we'd have to do. There are certainly some parts of the organization that could be handled by a civilian rather than an officer," Cooper said.

"We're going to look at all those things, and we're actually going to look at it with the people impacted."

The force's 24-hour detention facility and communications centre are targets for what the consultants call "civilianization."

The idea is one of several potential cost-cutting measures pitched in the long-awaited report from Vancouver-based Perrivale and Taylor Consulting.

The police service called for the report more than two years ago and the completed study sat with the police service for several months until it was publicly released earlier this week.

Opinions divided

Officers are divided about the potential change to the detention centre, the report says.

Some insist that "a police sergeant is essential as the officer in charge," while others express "a preference for a non police detention facility."

The reportsays a police sergeant is valuable given their years of experience but goes on to say skills like "integrity, reliability, evidence-based decision making, interpersonal skills ... are not restricted to sergeants."

The union representing officers takes a dim view of the report.

Det. Sgt. Dean Pringleis with the Saskatoon Police Association and he described the study as a "re-hash" of a 2004 operational review.

That study suggested the force was 42 officers short for a city this size. Today, he said the city is still 38 officers shy of optimum staffing.

"Our question is, what is being done address this, if anything? We're a decade and a half removed, almost, from the first one that pointed out the recommendation," he said in an interview.

Pringlesays the notion of using more civilians in the service is one that's been bandied about before, and it fails to take into account the value of expertise and training.

"You don't see it in medicine, where it's suggested you hire non-medical people for medical functions."

And Pringlesays members don't see the value of shortening shifts as way to cut overtime costs. He says the current structure gives officers about eight additional days off a year.

He says these days off are critical "for officer well being."

Lack of communications experience

Sergeants also work at the communication centre but "often have no experience in communications or radio systems."

"The use of supervisory personnel who are not fully familiar with communications processes and protocols, raises the possibility of liability issues for SPS," the consultants added.

Read the full report below. Can't see it? Click here.