REGINA -- An online petition has been launched calling to defund the Regina Police Service in order to get more funding for community-led organizations.

This follows similar calls in other cities around North America in response to George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis in May.

The page was created by “concerned citizens to express opposition to the $96 million Regina Police Service (RPS) budget.”

City council approved the budget including estimated gross operating expenditures of $96,028,900 and revenues of $10,399,600 in December.

The petition calls for an end to police budget increases and for the city instead to provide more funding for Black and Indigenous-led community organizations “that provide many of the same services as police, without requiring weaponry, communications departments, cells, or armoured vehicles.”

POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY

RPS Chief Evan Bray said he believes there are two categories that are part of the discussion surround defunding police.

“One is whether or not we have appropriate levels of police accountability,” he said. “This loud voice that we’re hearing in our community and throughout the world right now is stepping up against police brutality, not against police. I think that’s an important distinction for us to make.”

He said the need for oversight is a fundamental, basic principal in creating trust and confidence between the public and a police service, and that RPS sees oversight as a positive.

Bray said the provincial government is close to unveiling a new form of oversight for policing in Saskatchewan.

SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES

Bray said the second part of the dialogue revolves around police services doing something that they shouldn’t be doing.

“Are we involved in something that’s more of a social justice issue in our community?” he said.

He said about 80 per cent of the police service’s activities are not related to the criminal code, but instead with social issues like mental health calls and addictions.

He said those issues are at the root of many crime problems.

Bray said he’s open to conversations about doing more work with community partners, but added it’s not something that can be solved in the short term.

“There is a lot of work that we could share with community partners that might be in a better position to help someone suffering with mental health or addictions,” Bray said. “But often times when the crisis happens happens, we have to be there to keep everybody safe.”

Mayor Michael Fougere echoed Bray’s sentiment that getting to the root of social issues would ease the workload of RPS.

“If we can begin to address those issues as a community, not just the police budget but the province and federal government in a more coordinated way, we begin to lessen that impact on the service over time,” Fougere said.

FUNDING

Bray said it shouldn’t have to be one or the other when it comes to funding.

“The conversation around funding the police shouldn’t be that we have to defund the police in order to better fund other work that’s being done,” he said. “If there’s a way that we can find partners to help us out with some of the social work that we do, and we can focus on true community safety work, I think that’s a positive thing.”

Fougere said it’s not as simple as taking money from the police budget and allocating it to other organizations.

“It’s not an either-or, fund police or do nothing else,” Fougere said. “It’s got to be a question of all government coming together in a wholistic way.”

Premier Scott Moe said he has not been part of conversations regarding refunding police at this point.

“It’s news to me that the municipal police forces and the mayors are having that discussion, but we’re open to any discussion with our partners,” Moe said.

The petition, addressed to mayor Michael Fougere and city councillors, is asking for the following six moves to be taken:

  • Never voting to increase RPS budget funding again
  • Halting all hiring of additional officers and purchasing more equipment
  • Prioritizing the expansion of community-led health and safety initiatives, and to withhold pensions/don’t rehire cops involved in excessive force cases
  • Requiring police to be liable for misconduct settlements,
  • Stopping the deployment of armed and uniformed officers on mental health-related calls
  • Pledging to disarm and demilitarize the RPS.

As of Monday evening 2,394 people had signed the petition, which has not been formally submitted to the City of Regina for consideration at this point.