Prince Albert police are changing how they count use of force incidents

WATCH: Police in Prince Albert presented crime statistics for 2024 to the board of police commissioners on Tuesday.

Police Albert’s police chief believes his team can improve by better documenting and evaluating incidents where force is used by officers.

“We want to make sure that our officers are making good decisions in the right times and circumstances,” said Chief Patrick Nogier.

“Making sure that we maintain a focus on when force is being used. Is it appropriate? Is it proportional?”

In 2024, use of force reporting was incident-based. Now, they’ve adjusted the process so that each individual officer who uses some kind of force will be required to submit their own force report — even if it falls under the same incident.

The Prince Albert Police Service shared this update when it presented its 2024 year-end crime statistics to the board of police commissioners at city hall.

The report shows the number of victims of violent crimes dropped nearly 12 per cent from the year prior — and the service hopes to see the trend continue.

“We happen to be on a downward trend right now, which is very encouraging for the community,” said Nogier.

Nogier took the helm of the embattled police service in 2023 following the resignation of Chief Jonathan Bergen in the wake of a scathing Public Complaints Commission report that found two officers failed to adequately protect an infant boy who died just hours after police responded to a call to his home.

The police service also came under the scrutiny of the provincial Ministry of Justice, which hired a former Edmonton police chief to conduct an inquiry into the force.

In his recommendations, released shortly after Nogier took over, he identified a lack of procedures, capacity for criminal analysis and strategic planning, and recommended changes that promote “shifting from reactive policing practices to intelligence-driven policing.”

Nogier has made an effort to be more transparent about the reasoning behind decisions made by the police service, and has been vocal about its successes.

“We want to build on that. We want to highlight the fact that we’ve been successful as a community in curbing illicit and illegal activity, and we’ll continue working on what we think is working to help contribute to that.”

Nogier said the police service is taking into account public dissatisfaction with the current crime reporting model and will look for solutions.

“We need to get more engagement and more feedback from the community,” he told reporters. “We’re intent to re-evaluate to ensure the model is something the community needs.”

The police service maintains that one of their primary goals is public safety.