Regina Police have hired two, full-time Primary Care Paramedics to work out of the police detention cells. They will work on alternating, 12-hour night shift rotations. The department says the night shift is often the busiest time in the unit. Inspector Kelly Trithart says, they get between 800 and 900 people a month who come through the detention unit. He says some of those people have some fairly high -risk health issues.

Jayden Dayman is one of the paramedics. He says when prisoners are brought in, the paramedics will do the COVID screening questions and go through past medical history as well as take care of all of their medications as well as deal with any medical needs they have.

This initiative will also reduce the amount of time officers spend waiting at the hospital with those in their custody, keeping those officers available for calls out on the street.

The hope is to expand the service to 24 hours in the future.

Saskatoon started the practice of having paramedics on duty in Saskatoon Police detention cells, 24 hours a day, in the summer of 2016.