New look for Weyburn Police Service vehicle

By Steven Wilson

It’s something that has caught the eye of a few residents of Weyburn over the past few days — a Weyburn Police Service vehicle with a completely new look.

The newly decaled Tahoe entered the fleet last week and was seen on the roads over the weekend.

The new design eschews the basic design that is on the older vehicles in the fleet, with a bold, dark blue stripe on the side, getting wide as it gets to the back of the vehicle. There, a red maple leaf covers much of the back quarter panel. The traditional logo of the WPS is on the door, and Weyburn Police is in bold, white letters.

Const. Kalin Wiebe is the man responsible for the new look. He was tasked in late 2021 with coming up with a new look for the patrol vehicles to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the WPS.

For inspiration, he looked at other police vehicles across the country while keeping a few things in mind.

“Some of the design elements that were important when making this design was first off, visibility, and second off, uniqueness,” Wiebe explained.

The uniqueness was key as the Weyburn Police Service is part of numerous combined units, including the Combined Traffic Services Section, and the Joint Tactical Support Unit with the Estevan Police Service.

“We wanted the goal of our police vehicles being easily identified when in other communities or on the highway,” Wiebe added.

The design process wasn’t a one-man job, though. As part of the process, several concepts were drawn up, and through the process, three designs were selected. The members of the WPS then provided their input, and Const. Preston Roy did up computer renderings of the designs.

One was then selected and forwarded to the Weyburn Police Board. After the board gave its go-ahead, the design then went to the provincial government for approval, as the design did deviate somewhat from the standard design.

It was approved, and the decaling was placed on the newest addition to the WPS fleet. But people shouldn’t expect to see all the police vehicles in Weyburn having the same look right away.

“The decal design will be placed on new vehicles once they come into the fleet, so you will continue to see the old decaling package for the next two, three, four years,” Wiebe said.

So what has the public’s reaction been so far?

“When patrolling the streets, people are noticing, I am seeing heads turned,” Wiebe said.