Funding will help police adapt: Chief

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This article was published 23/06/2022 (1546 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon Police Service will receive more than $200,000 from the province’s Criminal Property Forfeiture Program to help the service adapt to changes in police work.

The Manitoba government is giving the municipal police service approximately $211,000 through the fund, meant to help BPS keep abreast of changes in society and crime, Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen announced at Brandon police headquarters Thursday afternoon.

The funding is intended to address some of the added roles police officers sometimes fill in for, he said.

“You’re not just doing traditional police service work. Sometimes you feel like you’re doing social services and you’re doing counselling and you’re doing a lot of other things and that can add a lot of stress to the job and some of that we can help with,” Goertzen said.

“We can’t change all of those things … but where we can help, we do want to assist.”

The cash injection includes $56,000 for BPS to implement a polygraph operator program, said police Chief Wayne Balcaen. A current police service employee will be trained to use a polygraph and BPS will buy the equipment.

The move will mean the local police service won’t have to rely on the RCMP or Winnipeg Police Service for polygraph tests, Balcaen said. Polygraphs are used in both criminal investigations and in background checks when hiring new officers.

The funding also includes $18,000 for a decontamination unit for the police service’s holding cells, something Balcaen said has become more needed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A total of $16,000 will also go toward a currency reading and tracing system, which the police service can use to track cash when it is seized during an investigation. Balcaen said it will help the police service determine if the cash has been involved in the drug trade.

“It’s efficient use of services and will allow us to do our work here locally and allow for further capacity,” he said.

Funding through the program also includes $13,000 for e-bikes for officers patrolling downtown, $9,000 for first-aid upgrades, $16,000 for investigations equipment, $9,000 for driver training and $13,000 for new audio-visual equipment.

Brandon police are also getting funding to expand the service’s use of drones, Balcaen said.

“We’re taking proceeds from the criminals and putting them back into the hands of the police service … We certainly hope those funds will help us with community safety, well-being and of course, supporting the victims of crime,” he said.

The police service is trying to upgrade and keep up with technology to prevent crime.

“There’s change in technology, there’s change in types of crime, there’s certainly not a lack of crime for us to investigate,” he said, adding the funding for new equipment eases the burden on police.

Mayor Rick Chrest said he was grateful for the province’s support.

The Rural Municipality of Cornwallis’ police service is also receiving $7,000 for in-car computer technology.

Both Brandon West MLA Reg Helwer and Brandon East MLA Len Isleifson were on hand for the announcement.

So far, the Brandon Police Service has received approximately $1.45 million from the criminal property forfeiture fund since its inception and approximately $211,000 so far this year.

In 2021, the Brandon Police Service also received money from the fund for emergency trauma kits and $400,000 from the fund for an armoured rescue in 2019.

» dmay@brandonsun.com

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