page_title: Saskatoon Police Service
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Saskatoon Police Service / History
caption_attribution_description: English: 1905 - 1910 Police Department.
context_page_description: Saskatoon Police Service is the municipal police service in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. It holds both municipal and provincial jurisdiction. Police Chief Troy Cooper is the head of the service. The deputy chiefs are Deputy Chief Mark Chatterbok, and Deputy Chief Jeff Bent. The SPS operates in partnership and cooperation with the Corman Park Police Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
  The SPS is known for discrimination against the Indigenous people of Canada, through the practice of extrajudicial killings known as the "starlight tours", where Indigenous people were taken to the edge of the city in the dead of winter and abandoned so they freeze to death.
context_section_description: In 1887 the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) established a detachment in Saskatoon, in what is now the Nutana area of the city. The detachment moved across the river to a building on First Avenue between 19th and 20th Streets sometime after the area that is now the downtown was first settled in 1890. In 1889, Constable John Clisby of the NWMP became the settlement's first permanent police officer.
  In January 1906, ex-NWMP constable Robert E. Dunning was appointed "Inspector, Constable, Engineer and Liquor License Inspector" for the then-Town of Saskatoon. Prior to that, Dunning had sworn an oath of office as a "Special Constable for the province of Saskatchewan" for November and December 1905. It is not clear what his precise duties or those of his predecessor, William Page Hurst (appointed constable for the then-Northwest Territories, 15 August - 31 December 1905) were, but presumably they were related to law enforcement in Saskatoon. After Saskatoon was incorporated as a city later that year, Dunning was appointed Chief of Police. In 1910 the first Rules and Regulations of the Saskatoon Police Department were approved.
  In 1930, the force moved into its first purpose-built police station, the Municipal Justice Building on the corner of 4th Avenue and 23rd Street, across from City Hall. In 1977, a new  station was built next to it. The old station was demolished in 1996 and the space became a parking lot. The new building cost roughly $5.5 million and had a floor space of 101,000 sq. feet. On 22 July 2014, Saskatoon's police operations moved into a new, much larger building on the 25th Street extension, between First Avenue and Idylwyld Drive. Built at a cost of $122 million, it is expected that it will serve as the central headquarters for the next 50 years.
caption: 1910 Police Force
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