A Saint John Police Force vehicle sits in front of police headquarters at One Peel Plaza. Image: Brad Perry
A new unit within the Saint John police is allowing officers to focus on higher-priority calls.
The Alternative Response Unit (ARU) is part of the force’s new strategic plan released earlier this year.
Chief Robert Bruce discussed the new unit during a Saint John Board of Police Commissioners meeting on Tuesday.
Bruce said ARU receives calls that may not be a high priority, such as a dog barking in a neighbourhood.
“That’s not going to be a priority call to us, and we may never get to it in this city, especially with the significant calls we have, so it can be done through the unit,” said Bruce.
However, if a certain call becomes more frequent or repetitive, the police force will then monitor those calls analytically, and adjust accordingly.
“Just say a sign gets smashed on your front lawn, you have a family sign, and [someone] walking by smashes it. There’s not really anything we can do to go out there,” said Bruce.
“However, for us, we will monitor that analytically to see if we are seeing more signs getting smashed … We had that issue in the east side, basically with youth and damage, so we sat down with the community, put a neighbourhood watch together, got the community involved, and set up a few more patrols.”
Bruce said the unit gives officers who are out on patrol more time to focus on high-priority calls.
The force has received 3,184 calls since implementing the Alternative Response Unit, he said.
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