Legislation tabled in Alberta Thursday could make sweeping changes in the province’s policing, including the creation of an independent agency to handle complaints against police.
The Police Amendment Act is a broad effort to make the first major changes to the province’s Police Act since the 1980s.
“We have some folks within rural Alberta that may not feel as though they’re being listened to by the RCMP. That’s just feedback that we’ve gotten,” Ellis said at a press conference announcing the Police Amendment Act Dec. 8. “This is about ensuring that the rural municipalities will have a say at the table under the current model, which is the RCMP, who is the current provincial police service provider.”
The Act creates civilian governance bodies in these rural areas with power to “set local police priorities and performance targets” for the RCMP there, Ellis said. “The RCMP are absolutely supportive of this and want to participate,” he said, regarding the governance bodies.
With regard to the Police Review Commission, which would handle complaints against the police, the RCMP’s K division in Alberta is supportive, he said. But they’re still talking to RCMP leadership in Ottawa about it. “We’re going to continue to negotiate with the RCMP because we believe that the independent body is the right approach.”
The creation of this commission is to avoid a “perception of police policing themselves,” Ellis said. It remains unclear who will sit on this commission. “I’m open to all applications,” he said. Former police may be good candidates, he said, because of their years of investigation experience. “We want to hire good people ... that are actually going to be able to perform these investigations.”
Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), the civilian oversight agency that has always handled cases of death and serious injuries involving police, would continue to do so. Other misconduct cases would now go the Police Review Commission.
If the Police Amendment Act is passed, police would have to develop community safety plans. That includes considering addiction help and how to address “root causes” of crime, Ellis said. Commenting on how much has changed since the 1980s, he said “we moved from having police forces with a narrow mandate to maintain law and order, to having ‘police services.’”
The legislation does not specify in detail what the community safety plans and diversity plans would entail. The ministry’s summary of the legislation said, “Diversity and inclusion plans will encourage police to reflect the communities they serve and to train officers about the distinct cultural needs of the various populations in our province.”
In a ministry press release, Edmonton Police Chief Dale McFee said, “We are pleased to see amendments to the Police Act move forward and welcome changes that we believe are well aligned with the strategic direction of the Edmonton Police Service and priorities we are hearing expressed from stakeholders.”
Mark Neufeld, president of the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police, said the reforms would “enrich trust and confidence across our province.”
