Council approves Buchanan’s police data entry review notice of motion

Red Deer city council agrees that a review of efficiencies in police data entry is needed.

On Monday, council unanimously approved a notice of motion from Councillor Buck Buchanan which calls for a national review on the matter.

It cites the escalating costs of policing and a lack of methodology across police services, which Buchanan says are causing officers to spend between 20 and 70 per cent of their time doing data entry.

Earlier this month, Buchanan said, “What ultimately has happened is that guys and gals get creative as to how they don’t have to do things because it’s labour-intensive. So rather than do what needs to be done, we’ll get creative. Instead of saying an apple is an apple, we’ll say it’s an orange and we don’t have to do all the data entry on it.”