Last year was a challenging one for the Saskatoon Police Service Traffic Unit.  The SPS released their 2022 Annual Traffic Report Thursday, and officers saw multiple factors that took them away from enforcement duties.

An increase in court, trials and parades, marches, and protests were the cause of redirected attention.  Police Chief Troy Cooper says there were 60 parades, marches and protests last year, up 40 per cent from the year before.

Dale Solie of the Inspector Patrol Support Division says that 2023 is expected to be the ‘year of the protest’, and the Traffic Unit should expect to see parade and protest numbers rise even higher than 2022.

Another highlighted point in the report showed that there were five main Saskatoon intersections where collisions are of higher concern. Solie says he didn’t include the names of the intersections in the report, because they had changed over the year period, but enforcement officers are working on an updated list right now.