Mayor calls for police reforms
Record number of shootings in 2016 indicates action needed, Nenshi says
The province’s police watchdog and the Alberta Police Act are in need of reform, say the mayor and a city councillor who sits on the Calgary police commission.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi and Coun. Diane Colley-Urquhart made the comments after council spent more than two hours grilling Police Chief Roger Chaffin and Brian Thiessen, the chair of the Calgary police commission, on Monday.
Elected officials quizzed the pair on topics including the record number of police shootings in Calgary in 2016, gender equity issues among civilian and sworn members, and a 2013 review that contains allegations of sexual harassment, bullying and sexual assault within the force.
“We did have a bad year,” Chaffin told council on Monday.
“I can’t sit around and hope for a better year. I think we do have to make changes instead of hope, we have to be able to do things to address these issues.”
After the lengthy public question-and-answer period and a brief move behind closed doors to talk about the police act, Nenshi told reporters he was glad the discussion took place and acknowledged tweaks are in order.
“We’ve got some work to do with the province.
“We’ve got to reform ASIRT a little bit to make sure that it’s more efficient, that it has the resources it needs to do its job, and we can communicate with people appropriately,” he said.
“And, we’ve got to make some changes to the police act to ensure it represents 21st-century human resources models.”
At Monday’s meeting, Ward 13 Coun. Colley-Urquhart, who sits on the Calgary police commission, agreed, called the province’s current police act “an old, old, old act that never contemplated policing in the 21st century,” and added that ASIRT also needs changes.
“We need reform on that side as well with ASIRT investigations because that’s hanging over the community and it’s hanging over the head of officers involved in an incident,” she said.
ASIRT, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, is a provincial body that’s called in to investigate officer-involved shootings.
To date in 2016, five people have died at the hands of a Calgary police officer, and a total of 10 policeinvolved shootings have occurred.
Nenshi said there have long been issues “around the ability to which ASIRT can communicate versus (how) the police service can communicate” in the wake of an incident.
Thiessen, who was recently named chair of the Calgary police commission, told reporters he’s looking forward to working with Alberta Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley and has already briefly spoken to her about issues surrounding ASIRT.
“We spoke about communications on ASIRT investigations, which are always difficult for the service and ASIRT, and how we can work to bring the service and ASIRT together and have effective communication when there’s officer-involved shootings,” he said of his conversation with Ganley.