P.A. police look to fill vacancies with $25K hiring incentive for experienced officers

Prince Albert’s police department is looking to fill its ranks and is offering a big incentive to bring the best men and women to the force.

The service is accepting applications from experienced police officers interested in moving to P.A., and to help with the recruitment, it’s offering a one-time $25,000 incentive to the first four experienced officers hired.

The new, temporary incentive was developed in partnership with the Prince Albert Police Association to help attract more experienced officers and address vacancies in the force along with front-line resource challenges.

“This incentive program is an idea that came from within the organization, driven by members of the recruiting committee and has the full support of our police association,” said Prince Albert Police Service Deputy Chief Farica Prince.

“New recruits require significant training and enhanced oversight, which takes about a year. Offering a financial incentive to experienced officers to encourage them to relocate to our community and work with us will ensure we remain competitive and continue to attract and retain qualified police officers to serve our community.”

The initiative is not a new concept, as many police forces in Canada and the United States, including Vancouver and Washington, D.C., have offered similar hiring incentives to attract experienced members.

Experienced applicants can be hired and begin serving the community after meeting all Saskatchewan policing standards and submitting to an internal hiring process.

Right now, the Prince Albert Police Service has vacancies because of organizational growth, planned retirements and transitions to other agencies.

“As a police service, we continue to direct resources to front-line patrol, and to proactively targeting crime trends and illegal activity,” the service said in a release.

Since last fall, the Prince Albert Police Service said it has hired 10 new police officers. Another four recruits have started training at police college and will graduate this winter.

Those interested in applying are asked to contact the Prince Albert Police Service.