Saskatchewan Highway Patrol has sent a new recruit to Lloydminster. The province’s Highway and Infrastructure confirmed on Monday that six new recruits will be joining Regina, Prince Albert and the Border City.
The main responsibility of a Highway Patrol officer is the enforcement of commercial vehicles. Officers are able to stop trucks and complete vehicle weight and safety inspections, enforce speed limits and other rules of the road.
Chief of Highway Patrol Robin Litzenberger says the new recruit will join a lone senior officer in Lloydminster in order to receive field training before going off on his own.
“The other component is doing the same first responder activities the same as a police officer does. So, we will be responding to 911 calls, any type activity we come across out there in Saskatchewan backing up the partner agencies like the RCMP.”
Patrol officers’ other responsibilities, such as responding to emergency calls, supports their role on the Protection and Response Team. PRT consists of Highway Patrol, conservation officers, RCMP and municipal police officers. The team was created a year ago to mainly reduce rural crime. Litzenberger says training has changed in order for officers to be well-prepared for the extended responsibilities.
“We’ve expanded on [mental health training] and also in other components of training we’ve expanded on so that we are better prepared for our protection and response team duties.”
Litzenberger says that each detachment usually has a set number of officers stationed at each location. He says he aims to have more officers in Lloydminster in the future.
“Through attrition over the years, retirement, people moving on to other jobs et cetera, we were down to one officer so we’re going to build up our compliment over time, so that we’re back up to four officers in Lloydminster.”
Litzenberger adds that he is glad to have a new recruit in Lloydminster as this is a step forward in better servicing the area. He says that the Border city is key location for Highway patrol with a lot of traffic coming through between Alberta and Saskatchewan.