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Police Chief Cam McBride is looking to improve support for Saskatoon police officers.
Published June 27, 2024 • Last updated 18 minutes ago • 3 minute read
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Saskatoon Police Chief Cameron McBride is congratulated by Saskatoon Police Board chair Shirley Greyeyes during an induction ceremony at Saskatoon Police Headquarters on June 25, 2024. Photo by Michelle Berg/Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
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Looking out at the crowd of more than 200 people, including his fellow officers, decked out in full uniform covered in gold braid and glittering medals, newly sworn-in Saskatoon Police Chief Cam McBride, who described himself as “a Saskatoon kid who dreamed of being a police officer,” was visibly emotional about reaching the pinnacle of the police service he first joined 27 years ago.
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“It's no secret that I'm an emotional person,” McBride said, acknowledging he had some reservations about whether that trait suited him to be police chief. He said he was advised to think of it as an “outward expression” of his commitment to the community.
McBride admitted he tried to “lose himself” as he surveyed the audience, carefully avoiding eye contact with his family to prevent the tears from streaming. He ended up appearing to well up at several points and could not stop his voice from trembling at times during his speech.
While the display of vulnerability may not be in keeping with the stereotypical image of the calm cop of old, McBride was clear in his speech after the ceremony and in comments to the media that policing has changed since he first put on the uniform in 1997.
He recalled there were shifts early in his career when he and his fellow officers wondered how to fill the time if no calls came in. Police now face a tougher crime environment, he said, with an increase in calls related to crystal methamphetamine and an increased presence of firearms.
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McBride said police officers have an “incredibly tough job” these days and described police work as both a “vocation” and a “calling”.
“It's something you have to accept, it's something your family has to accept, and you have to give it your all.”
McBride was officially sworn in Tuesday but was first appointed as chief about a month ago.
With the recent retirements of three of Saskatoon Police Service's most senior officers, 2024 will in some ways be what McBride called “a year of stability.”
He made health and wellness a priority early in his term, saying he spent a lot of time last month meeting with staff to assess “where we are as an organization and where we need to go” to support officers who are facing increasingly stressful situations.
“Our aim is to have a really well-established and robust mental health strategy in place by the end of the year,” he said.
The initiative comes at a time when police forces across Canada are increasingly reporting heightened mental health-related concerns stemming from their work.
A 2018 report from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health noted that Canadian police officers are “disproportionately affected by mental illness,” with about 37 per cent of urban and rural police officers reporting symptoms of mental illness, compared to about 10 per cent of the general population.
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The report cited a study of two urban Canadian police departments that found 52 per cent of officers reported moderate to severe stress, 88 per cent reported moderate to severe anxiety and 87 per cent reported moderate to severe depression.
The study also found that 29 per cent fell within the clinical diagnostic range of post-traumatic stress disorder, compared with an overall lifetime prevalence of PTSD of about 9 per cent among Canadians.
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