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Saskatoon’s Police and Crisis Team units responded to more than 3,000 calls last year – more than 3.5 times the number of calls for mental health and addictions responses fielded when the team was created in 2019.
On Thursday, Saskatoon’s Board of Police Commissioners will receive a report on the police force’s vulnerable person’s unit, which is composed of the Saskatoon Police and Crisis Team (PACT) along with HUB – a provincial model meant to “address acute elevated risk” for local people and families.
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Since 2019, PACT officers have responded to people with mental illness when “experiencing significant mental illness and or addiction issues,” the police report stated. The team is collaborative, providing crisis intervention and assessment using trauma-informed techniques and sharing resources.
The team responds to mental health and addiction-related calls – including cases of attempted suicide, self-harm and welfare checks – and can apprehend people using mental health warrants.
The Police and Crisis Team has seen a continued increase in calls since 2019, according to the chief’s report. In 2019, the team saw its lowest number of calls at 949. The number of calls rose to 3,410 in 2025, up slightly from 3,295 calls in 2024 and from 2,632 in 2023.
“The demand for PACT continues to exceed capacity,” the report stated.
Working to reduce the criminalization of mental illness, PACT aims to divert people away from arrest and incarceration, impacting service delivery costs.
The program has the goal of streamlining and co-ordinating access to community resources, reducing visits to emergency departments and diverting appropriate mental health and addictions cases away from the justice system. It also aims to reduce repeated calls for service to the police force.
PACT was responsible for 500 diversions from the city’s emergency departments last year. In 2025, the team also apprehended 224 people under the Mental Health and Service Act, and transported more than 100 people to Royal University Hospital for voluntary assessments.
At an estimated cost per visit of $800, the emergency department diversions alone are estimated at around $400,000 last year, not accounting for inflation.
Since last year, PACT reported a 15.6 per cent reduction in mental health warrants and a nearly 60 per cent reduction in diversions from cells. The report attributed this to partnerships with mental-health experts, community relationships and the development of a complex-needs facility, where intoxicated people who do not need hospitalization can be taken.
The challenges the team is facing are consistent with the increasing demand of mental health-related calls for service in Saskatoon.
“PACT makes every attempt possible to divert away from the hospital in situations that do not require this care,” the report stated.
“Hospital emergency departments continue to be overburdened and short on rooms which contribute to longer waiting times for our teams. If PACT is waiting with a subject in emergency, they are unable to actively respond to calls in progress.”
The report noted that different options are being considered that would allow the team’s units to remain available to respond to different mental health calls in progress.
About the PACT team
The results of the team’s work, according to the report, have included “enhanced immediate response and service” to people in a mental health or addictions crisis, fewer arrests in disturbance calls due to psychosocial crises and a reduced number of emergency department stays and shorter visits for avoidable mental health and addictions cases, among others.
PACT also can direct people and families to community support and medical resources and facilitate shelter needs, and follows up with community members to ensure well-being.
Four specialized teams make up PACT, each consisting of a Saskatoon police officer and a crisis worker. Within the police force’s patrol bureau, each platoon has a dedicated PACT unit, with each unit working a four-day rotation of two day shifts from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and two evening shifts from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Three of the four PACT units receive provincial funding for the police officers’ positions, with crisis worker positions funded by the Saskatchewan Health Authority. The fourth PACT unit is fully funded by the Saskatoon police.
The PACT team is under the police community engagement division, embodying a community safety model developed by police, the health authority and Saskatoon Crisis Intervention Service. It was established to coordinate existing units – PACT and HUB – within the police force. Both teams work towards early intervention and developmental crime prevention, according to the report by Saskatoon police chief Cam McBride, dated April 8, 2026.
This involves reducing community and individual risk factors and increasing protective factors with the overall goal of impacting crime and public safety,” the report stated. “This is an integrated, multi-dimensional, multi-sectoral approach that involves shifting from traditional calls for service response to creating alternative solutions in keeping with problem-oriented policing.”
The Board of Police Commissioners will meet on Thursday at 1 p.m., at Saskatoon City Hall.
