Alternative Response Unit

As the demands on our frontline police officers are ever increasing, the Saint John Police is constantly evaluating how to provide the most cost effective and efficient service to our community without compromising our standards.

In August of 2021, we launched our new Alternative Response Unit. Our mission was to prioritize our inbound calls for service to allow our frontline police officers to be more readily available for emergency calls and proactive policing measures.

To this end, the Public Safety Communications Centre now diverts as many non-emergency calls for service as possible that do not require a police officer to respond in person. Instead, these calls are now directed to the Alternative Response Unit in which a police officer will respond to the complainant by telephone. Their complaints are then directed to the appropriate division for further investigation, if required.

We are pleased to announce that since August 30, 2021 a total of approximately 1,618 calls have been diverted away from frontline officers allowing them to be more responsive in the community.

Our next phase to this program will be the implementation of online reporting, which will provide citizens with yet another platform for reporting to police and further increase the effectiveness of our service delivery model.