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Q: What’s your approach to dealing with those problems, with the public intox cases?

A: First of all, we want to get them a sober safe person to take care of them. If we don’t have that, we look at places like the Lighthouse, the brief detox unit. But some of these individuals have aggressive behaviours and a violent background and are not allowed to be there, so then it’s straight off to our cellblock. What I have been finding is because of the heavy call load, sometimes our police are dealing with the individual and they say, ‘He wasn’t as drunk as he was last time’ so we shoo him on his way. Well, not under my watch. We want to deal with them effectively the first time, so we are not generating more calls for service on this person. I’m bringing in a zero tolerance approach to public intoxication. I am not trying to fill our cellblock; I am just trying to get the officers to make the call on the first call.

Q: People know you as a homicide detective. You’ve worked on high-profile cases like the Isho Hana homicide and the Karina Wolfe case. What prompted you to make the jump to inspector of central division?

A: Well, I’ve got close to 29 years of service with the Saskatoon police. I spent the better part of 10 and a half years in the plain clothes, in the major crimes section. I felt it was time for a change. Instead of just being transferred to another unit, I felt there was more I could offer the staff of the SPS — ways to do things better, fresh energy into the organization. Once you get promoted to inspector you have a little bit more say in how things are going on, how to direct resources and that kind of thing.