Police commissioner says Alberta should look at other models of oversight

Article content

When Lisa Silver was appointed to the Calgary police commission in November 2012, it was rare to see members of the public attend the monthly meetings.

Six years later, the oversight agency’s meetings now frequently draw a full public gallery.

Silver reflected on the change as she prepares to attend her last meeting in the role Tuesday, and on some of the issues that have drawn public attention to local police oversight, such as human resources reforms. She noted the day a police constable stood up to read her resignation letter to the commission was the first time the issue of workplace concerns within the police service became personal.

“It was a devastating day when Jen (Magnus) stood up,” Silver said. “And to me, it was like a ‘wow’ moment, where it was (realizing), ‘You know what? This is one of the most important things that we have to deal with.'”

Pursuing changes to address complaints of bullying and harassment in the workplace is just one of the areas Silver expects the commission to continue working on after the end of her term. While the commissioner’s term was up for renewal, she is opting to step back and focus on the law courses she teaches at the University of Calgary, and on her position on the board of Calgary Legal Guidance.

One issue Silver points to as critical going forward is Police Act reform, and for the provincial government to look at other models of civilian oversight.

“We are a statutory body,” she said. “We only can do what is in the four corners of that Police Act. And so we really need our government to think long and hard about what that means and what it looks like … We have to be open to looking at different ways of governing and providing independent civilian oversight.”

Mount Royal University justice studies professor Doug King agreed that the Police Act needs to be opened up, noting the current act goes back to the mid-1980s.

“There’s no oversight legislation that I’m aware of that was put into place in the 1980s that hasn’t been opened up and modified to that effect,” King said.

He also sees a need to look beyond the current model of police oversight in Calgary. In fact, he believes a better model would be regional or provincial oversight.

“Then invest the provincial police oversight with more independent authority related to investigation of alleged police misconduct, more aggressive oversight of police management,” King said.

“I think the current model has worked fairly well … I just think that it might be time to look at a bigger model in the sense of having more hands-off linkages to policing.”

He noted that while investigations of serious incidents related to policing fall to a provincial body, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, municipal agencies are tasked with overseeing individual police services.

“We have no standardization when it comes to police officer recruit training, in-service training, all of that — that tends to be decided at a municipal level,” King said.

“One of the challenges, I think, that comes out of that, is that the senior executive rank within municipal police agencies tend to get out of touch with (what’s happening in) police agencies across the province and police agencies across Canada. So they become very insulated. And that also then means that they tend to promote from within, which means that they’re not open to any kind of real substance of change.”

Ahead of Tuesday’s commission meeting, Silver remarked on how much has changed in policing over the last six years.

“It’s no longer, ‘There’s social disorder and we’re going to go check it out,'” she said. “It’s someone who’s suicidal, it’s someone who’s on fentanyl, it’s someone who is driving the wrong way down Macleod Trail.”

The police service is also facing a change with the upcoming departure of Roger Chaffin and the selection of a new chief. While she won’t be involved in the commission’s search for the best candidate, Silver said she hopes that leader will come with a commitment to both policing and to the public good.

“It’s not just commitment, it’s actioning that commitment,” Silver added. “In solid, identifiable priorities that the public can understand and that the front-line members understand.”

A spokesman for Alberta Justice and Solicitor General said the issues facing law enforcement “are vastly different from when the Police Act was introduced in 1988.”

A meeting was held with stakeholders in September to gather input on what Albertans need from police and how police legislation could be changed, the province said. A series of roundtable sessions are also scheduled over the coming months on topics including processes for handling complaints from public and funding for police services.