REGINA -- The Regina Police Association is apologizing for a tweet it sent out responding to calls to defund the Regina Police Service.

The union, that represents members of the Regina Police Service, tweeted a message after groups in Regina and across North America began calling for the defunding of police.

The tweet included an article about the Regina Police Service’s Cultural and Community Diversity unit which aims to build relationships between RPS members and all members of the community.

“Do you support the ‘defunding’ of police in Regina? If you do, this amazing work by our members will be one of the first to go. Choose wisely,” the union said in a tweet.

The Association then released four tweets apologizing for the original tweet and explained the miscommunication.

“The intention of the tweet was to demonstration how our members cherish the relationships we’ve built within community. We’re fearful that the ‘defunding’ of police will ultimately exclude our members from such valuable social programming.”

The President of the Association, Sgt. Casey Ward, said the tweet should not have included that article because the message of the tweet was to provide education about programs that could potentially be lost, but not that specific unit.

“There’s a big push right now for defunding police across Canada and the U.S. and if you are looking at defunding them, obviously along the way something has to give,” Ward said.

 

"As the president of the Regina Police Association, we want to ensure that all members are taken care of and we would be worried that there could be a loss of jobs through a de-funding of police.”

However, Ward says he recognizes that all funding decisions are in the hands of RPS leadership.

“At the end of the day, that’s up to our chief. He would have to make a decision at that time whether its programs within our service, first response, maybe its technology and infrastructure," said Ward.

The initial tweet and the following apology tweets have since been deleted.