Bulletin: Catching Lawbreakers

There are more police across the province who are working on our streets, in our communities and in partnerships focused on crime that is of great concern to Nova Scotians.

The province has committed to provide funding to hire an additional 250 police officers over four years to work across the province. Within the first two years, every municipality will receive at least one additional officer. The funding has already been provided to municipal police forces and the RCMP to hire 80 new officers.

This year, more officers will be allocated to work in partnership with schools, communities and among police forces. For example, funding will be provided to hire more community-school resource officers, serving as positive role models for young people to deter bullying and other abuse. They can also gain valuable information that can limit and shut down drug, alcohol and gang-related activities involving youth, on and off school grounds.

The province is also supporting the development of collaborative, regional crime reduction teams -- the teams build on the Street Crime Enforcement Units now in place. The Street Crime Enforcement Units are improving the co-ordination and effectiveness of activities involving municipal police, the RCMP and the Criminal Intelligence Service Nova Scotia in fighting street crime.

The province will sponsor a workshop where police involved in these units can share their experiences with their colleagues. We Their advice will be sought on how to build on this collaborative approach involving other agencies that support enforcement efforts.

Partnerships and collaboration are key in our efforts to get more drunk drivers off the road. As a pilot project, municipal police and RCMP will work closely together as part of an Integrated Impaired Driving Enforcement Unit. The unit will develop enforcement strategies based on the unit's combined experience, expertise and awareness of their community needs.

Investment: Additional Police Officer Program (4 years) $65,000,000 Provincial Workshop $15,000 Integrated Impaired Driving Enforcement Unit $194,000 Sites: -- additional Police Officer Program, Provincewide -- integrated Impaired Driving Enforcement Unit, Southwest Nova Scotia -- collaborative Regional Crime Reduction Teams, South Shore -- three other sites to be determined

Strategy Link: Enforcement, see pp. 27–28, 32–33. Time to Fight Crime Together

The complete crime prevention strategy is available online at www.gov.ns.ca .