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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.
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Above: Casino Niagara
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ABOVE: Casino Patrol Unit in
front of Niagara Falls
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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.
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