‘IT’S ABOUT TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY’
Time to resign, police union tells Commission Chair Brian Thiessen
We brought our concerns time and again to the commission and were disregarded on every occasion.
In an unprecedented move, the Calgary Police Association is calling for the head of Calgary’s police oversight body to resign.
Sgt. Les Kaminski, president of the union that represents more than 2,000 members, says his public appeal for Calgary police commission chair Brian Thiessen to resign is “not personal. It’s about policing. It’s about transparency and accountability. It’s about doing the job you’re assigned to do. And it’s about the safety of Calgarians.”
During a news conference at the police association headquarters Thursday, Kaminski — who has been a sergeant both in gang suppression and TAC — pointed to the recent resignation of Sheila Ball, chief human resources officer with the Calgary Police Service, who was hired with much fanfare in February but only lasted about six months in the job after a successful decades-long career in the same field elsewhere.
Ball’s second-in-command in the HR department also resigned around the same time.
HR reform was touted as a priority by Calgary Police Chief Roger Chaffin and Thiessen after more than one dozen former and current police officers — including some who resigned publicly — reported harassment, bullying and a toxic work environment, a finding that was backed up by a report.
“Chief Chaffin claims he didn’t know about this because he was on vacation. Really?” asked Kaminski.
“This highly accomplished, professional HR specialist, with a stellar reputation and 40 years of experience, leaves with no explanation? And the commission appears to ask no questions, voicing little concern about why she would walk away. In fact, chair Thiessen calls this a ‘hiccup,’” said Kaminski.
But Ball’s recent resignation was not Kaminski’s only complaint. Not by a long shot.
The role of the police commission is to provide civilian oversight to the city’s police service and to be the chief ’s boss. It is also the only place where members can lodge complaints against the chief. Kaminski says Thiessen is more like a cheerleader than the head of oversight, more of a lapdog than watchdog.
In July, Chaffin announced his retirement, which will take effect Jan. 6.
Following Chaffin’s earlierthan-expected retirement, Thiessen was quoted in the media praising the chief, which is acceptable to a point following the retirement announcement of one’s employee, but then Thiessen also admitted the chief was his friend.
“Imagine this,” says Kaminski. Thiessen “came out in the media and stated: ‘I consider Chief Chaffin a friend and I think if you were to look at the dictionary, Chief Chaffin’s picture should be beside the word integrity.’ “
“(Thiessen) said this knowing full well that there are pending complaints filed against the chief,” said Kaminski. “How, then, can anyone who has made a complaint through the only avenue available — the police commission — then expect that chair Thiessen could possibly be an impartial, unbiased adjudicator?” asked Kaminski.
It’s a good question. Judges, in both civil and criminal courts, are required to recuse themselves from presiding over trials if they are aware of even minor prior contact with someone, let alone friendship. All commissioners of the police commission should hold off on forming friendships with an acting chief and other members of the police executive. It’s the price of ensuring effective oversight of a position and organization that holds enormous power and influence over society. Once the chief and other high-ranking officers have resigned, friendship is fine. Thiessen, a high-powered lawyer in Calgary, will undoubtedly understand this.
Thiessen would not comment Thursday, but the police commission put out a statement in his defence.
“All members of the Calgary Police Commission support the Chair who speaks on behalf of the entire group,” said the written statement.
“We will not let this personal attack on Chair Thiessen be a distraction as we focus our efforts on hiring a new Chief Constable for Calgary,” said the statement.
“We are disappointed that the Calgary Police Association continues to decline opportunities to collaborate with the Commission to move initiatives forward.”
Kaminski, however, says the police association has “worked hard to be collaborative” and he’s “got the documentation to prove that.
“In our function as a representative for our members, we brought our concerns time and again to the commission and were disregarded on every occasion.”
Kaminski says the police association “watched as the chair blindly supported bad decision after bad decision by the chief.”
Kaminski said Calgary’s gang suppression team’s efficacy was undermined when Chaffin implemented tenure — a policy that placed arbitrary hard time limits to how long a constable could spend in a specialty unit, such as K-9, TAC, narcotics, forensics, accident reconstruction, technical crimes, surveillance etc.
“Sure enough, gang violence began to rise. As the president, I brought the issue to the commission and, as usual, we were ignored. Now, the teams are so depleted that they only provide half the coverage that they did a few years ago.”
Calgary now has the highest car theft rate in the country after Chaffin disbanded a special autotheft team that was extremely successful, something that Kaminski says the police association predicted if the commission didn’t step in and stop the chief from disbanding the unit.
Police morale is the lowest it’s ever been, according to the commission’s own study, and citizen confidence in the service is also way down.
Clearly, the Calgary Police Service and its oversight body are shooting blanks when it comes to effectiveness. New leadership is needed.