Having paramedics working with the Brandon Police Service has freed up police and health-care resources and led to more arrests and interventions, officials say.

Paramedics started working in the BPS detention facility on July 3, allowing for detainees to be monitored and cared for in-house instead of at the Brandon Regional Health Centre, something police Chief Tyler Bates is grateful for.

“It was not unusual for Brandon Police Service to have three, four, five, six cars lined up at the hospital waiting for their detainees to be assessed,” Bates said in an interview on Friday, adding that situation was “really crippling.”

Up until the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, people who were arrested were taken to the Brandon Correctional Centre and evaluated there.

That changed when social dist

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