A wide range of topics ranging from the Youth Criminal Justice Act and police dogs to smuggling of firearms and Internet crimes were discussed at the fall conference of the Saskatchewan Association of Chiefs of Police, held in Weyburn on Wednesday and Thursday.

Representatives from the RCMP joined chiefs from the province's major cities, including Regina, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, Prince Albert and Estevan as well as conservation officers from SERM for the two-day meeting.

Weyburn chief Rod Horsman noted as Weyburn's police department often calls on other departments or the RCMP for expertise in various areas, a provincial conference like this is very valuable in the sharing of information.

An example of inter-departmental cooperation is the new Integrated Unit on Organized Crime, he said, which is headquartered at the city police station but is run in conjunction with the RCMP.

A recent investigation they have been involved with was an aggravated assault of a Weyburn man which began in the city, but continued when the victim was taken out to the Halbrite area and left, where he was found the next morning. Three people have been charged in this incident.

Internet crimes, or e-crimes, were one of the major topics of the conference, and Horsman said this is an area where a department like Weyburn's needs outside expertise, as their manpower doesn't have the knowledge to deal with these types of crime. There have been charges laid in Weyburn for these crimes, he said, but usually the department has to call in the RCMP's computer crimes section to assist them.

The president of the provincial association, Chief Cal Johnston of the Regina Police Service, said e-crimes are a growing concern for all police departments.

"At our spring meeting, we formed a committee to bring an integrated approach to e-crime. We're looking at our capacity to investigate e-crime and how we prioritize these crimes. We need coordination of this police work so there's no duplication," said Johnston, noting that Internet crimes are committed without regard for borders or jurisdictions.

With a recent court ruling in Ontario making marijuana possession illegal again, Johnston was asked if the provincial association has taken any position on the issue.

"The provincial association is independent, but we tend to support the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police," he said, adding they are of the view that any such change to the law has to be national in scope before they will change from enforcing marijuana possession as illegal. The previous court ruling on possession was made in Ontario, which admittedly affected how some other provinces looked at the charge.

The bottom line on marijuana, he said, is "the CACP does not support decriminalization of marijuana."

On the new Youth Criminal Justice Act, which replaced the Young Offenders Act, Johnston said it's too early to know if this act is working or not, as it has only been in effect for about six months.

"We want to watch the impact this law has on crime rates," he said, noting that at the current time some offenders are still serving time under the old YOA, and some are in custody under the new legislation, so it's hard to be able to tell how well the new system is working yet.