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The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) has rolled out a new program for protective service officers who work at hospitals.
Officers have now been trained to patrol the premises on bikes. The pilot program was created after a spike in crimes on and near hospital premises.
“Last year we had seen an increase in criminal behaviour in and around some of the campuses throughout the health authority,” said Tony Nadon, the SHA’s manager of protective services.
“We have foot patrol that our officers do as well as some vehicular patrol, so we thought we’d augment it with bike patrol for the fact that it’s able to get into pathways and tighter areas that vehicles may not be able to get to.”
The program involves several days of training provided by the Law Enforcement Bike Association. The 12-hour training days are to get officers accustomed to the bikes, and to teach them how to use them in a defensive way.
Officers rode around the city in a group setting and practised fitting in small spaces, speeding up and slowing down, and using a bike as a barricade or weapon.
Nadon said he’s happy with how well the program is already going.
“It already has made quite a difference. Uniform presence does deter crime and having our officers out there being seen will definitely help that,” said Nadon. “It’s great to see more uniform presence throughout the campuses.”
Currently, there are only two hospitals in the province who have implemented the bike training: Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospital and Regina’s General Hospital.
Those two hospitals are the only ones using the training right now due to the nature of the pilot project. The program is being monitored, and depending on its success, other hospitals could begin implementing it too.
“We’re just going to wait and see by the summer where things are at,” said Nadon. “I believe that it is going to expand. It just might take a little bit of time to figure out where.
“The training is a big part because we’re only allowed limited spots in that particular terrain because our other law enforcement officers have to take that training as well.”
So far, Nadon said the program has been successful. Nadon said an RUH protective services officer even talked someone out of jumping off of the nearby University Bridge and saved a life while on his nearby bike patrol.
Officers in the program already want to see it expanded further.
“To be able to get out more during the day so we have 24-hour coverage would be great,” said Ian Thies, an RUH protective services officer. “Even for the parking lot, there’s some break-ins and people are worried about the security there, so if we could bike the parkades all night, that would be great.”
Thies has been an avid biker for the past 45 years, and has experience with street biking and mountain biking. He thought an opportunity like this would be the perfect time to put his cycling skills to use.
Thies noted it gets tiring biking in the extreme heat conditions and the number of biking officers is quite low, so Thies works in this position regularly.
“It has been drastically hot out, so you have to keep that into consideration. When you’re biking, you do get dehydrated a lot,” said Thies. “If we had more officers that were qualified, it would be helpful.”
Thies noted he’d be happy for the program to expand to other hospitals. But he pointed out the reason behind the chosen locations is their size.
RUH has many campuses and sections of the hospital that take longer to access by vehicle or foot. Other hospitals in the province aren’t too big, so it’s easier for officers to patrol on foot or by car.
The program is set to operate until Oct. 31.
