Casino Patrol Unit

Casino Patrol Unit

December 1996 marked the introduction of casino gambling to the Niagara Falls area, with the creation of Casino Niagara -- the provinces largest casino. This event led to the inception of the Casino Patrol Unit, the newest addition of the Niagara Regional Police Service.

The unit is comprised of 25 full-time police officers, working on 4 platoons, operating 24 hours a day. The unit complement consists of 20 constables, 4 sergeants, and 1 staff sergeant who oversees all casino related activities, coordination of the four platoons, as well as all administrative details. The officers are deployed in a variety of ways to ensure maximum police visibility in the tourist area surrounding Casino Niagara. Officers can be deployed on foot, bicycle, motorcycle, and the traditional cruiser patrol. This not only assures visibility, but it also enables officers to provide quick response times to calls for service in the often heavily congested area.

Above: Casino Niagara

Above: Casino Patrol Unit in front of Niagara Falls

The Casino Patrol Unit is responsible for policing the hub of the city's tourist district, in very close proximity to twenty of the city's most popular tourist attractions (including Niagara Falls, and Queen Victoria Park). This area also contains 66% of the city's 12000 hotel and motel rooms, and lodging houses. The Casino Patrol Unit's district is visited by an excess of 20 million people annually from all over the world. The members of this unit have to both serve as a deterrent to crime, and as ambassadors of the Niagara Regional Police Service to the multicultural tourist population.

The Niagara Regional Police Service boasts a wide variety of highly trained and professional officers, along with numerous specialized units which provide the citizens, and tourists of the Niagara Region with a multi-phasic and uncompromised response to any emergency.

Above: Patrolling Niagara Falls