Funding shift must ease police workload: chief
Calgary’s police chief is opening the door to shifting the responsibility of mental-health crisis calls away from police, but the way to create that system is still an “open question.”
Chief Mark Neufeld and the head of the city’s police oversight body spoke to council Thursday on how they plan to address the ways racism is institutionally embedded in law enforcement. The meeting follows a three-day public hearing on systemic racism in July, where more than 100 people spoke about how racism and discrimination has affected their lives in Calgary. Police came up frequently, from students of colour saying they feel unsafe around school resource officers to Black and Indigenous people describing being repeatedly stopped and questioned by police when they’d done nothing wrong.
Neufeld said he hopes to get a broad look at how to get the right resources to Calgarians when they need them, but it needs to be a solution that reduces the demands police currently face.
“If the demand is going away and there’s someone better to deal with that, then the funding may well go. It makes sense,” Neufeld said. “We become the de facto response to everything, and it’s a reasonable conversation to say that perhaps we shouldn’t be.”
Mayor Naheed Nenshi said there’s work ahead to make sure people from racialized communities don’t feel targeted by police, or someone having a mental-health or addictions crisis isn’t in danger if a police officer shows up to a wellness check.
But the mayor said that might not mean cutting back the police budget and putting the money toward other social programs or supports, a move advocated by proponents of defunding the police. And that process will take more time than the two months before this year’s city budget adjustments.
He said specifics about how to proceed with potentially moving some responsibilities away from police is an “open question.”
“We have to create a system, not just say, ‘Take money away and we’ll put it toward something amorphous,’” Nenshi said.
“It’s about working with (the police commission) and the police service and politicians and community members to say, ‘Let’s design a system where when you phone 911 or you approach or are approached by a police officer on the street, ultimately that leads to greater safety for everyone in the community.’”
COUNCIL CONVERSATION
Neufeld presented a report to council outlining other actions CPS plans to take, including collecting race-based data in citizen interactions and commissioning an independent review of the school resource officer program. That review is planned to start early next year.
Neufeld said that, historically, policing has been a threat to the safety of Black, Indigenous and racialized people.
“And it’s a legacy so deeply rooted that, unbeknownst to us, it can show up in our daily work.”
After the systemic racism public hearing, council unanimously voted to acknowledge the existence of systemic racism in Calgary, including within the City of Calgary and CPS.
But some members of council took issue with some of the statements in the CPS report presented Thursday.
Coun. Jeromy Farkas said he didn’t accept the statement that policing as an institution is rooted in racism, and Coun. Sean Chu, a former CPS officer, said he doesn’t believe there is “systematic racism” within the force.
Marilyn North Peigan, a threeyear member of the police commission, who is a member of Piikani Nation, will head up a new anti-racism committee for the police oversight board.
She said at the council meeting that she was “shaking her head” at parts of the discussion, and the disagreement about what systemic racism is and where it’s present.
“Doing the same things better, it’s not enough,” she said. “And if we can’t even get these minimal definitions down, how are we going to progress in the future?
“I’m kind of disappointed I’m hearing these kinds of discrepancies at this level.”
Nyall Dabreo, a defence lawyer who was part of the expert panel council brought in during the July public hearings, said in an interview he wants to see how CPS will demonstrate whether their plans create productive change.
“It comes back to accountability and oversight because the trust has been eroded,” he said. “Transparency is key in assessing whether or not we can trust these measures are effective. Without it, we’re taking their word.”
Canadian Cultural Mosaic Foundation CEO Iman Bukhari added that she’s hopeful about the fact that CPS and the city say they want to collaborate with the community to find solutions.
But she thinks the chief needs to acknowledge that there are still problems that aren’t always openly discussed because of the fear people feel speaking out against police.
“The police need to understand that they are a scary entity,” she said.
“I think when you have that powerful position, you don’t always think, how does the other person perceive me? That’s something they need to consider, they actually have the most power.”
DEFUNDING POLICE ‘MISGUIDED’
Before Thursday ’s council meeting, Alberta Justice Minister Kaycee Madu sent letters to the mayors of Calgary and Edmonton to communicate his “absolute opposition” to the concept of defunding the police.
“Frankly, this approach is misguided, as an adequately funded police service is essential to ensure that all citizens are able to live safe and secure lives in our communities,” he wrote.
Madu referenced two grant programs that the provincial government currently provides to municipalities to help pay for law enforcement, and said the province will “closely monitor” the way cities manage their police budgets as those grant agreements approach expiry.
“It should be clear that any substantial changes may lead us to explore options to ensure we maintain adequate funding for critical law enforcement for Alberta’s citizens.”
Nenshi dismissed Madu’s letter as “ridiculous.”
Last year, the United Conservative government’s budget upped the province’s share of fine revenue from 26.7 per cent to 40 per cent, amounting to $10 million annually that would no longer go into the CPS budget. New DNA testing charges and a cancelled training program added $3 million to the shortfall, totalling a $13-million cut to the police.
“If (Madu) thinks his own budget was misguided last year … I’m happy to get the cheque,” Nenshi said.
The mayor said Madu, who recently moved to the justice portfolio from municipal affairs, has a big job ahead in reforming the Police Act, a necessary step in achieving some of the goals CPS outlined during the meeting, including improving the process of complaining about police misconduct.
Nenshi said he doesn’t think Madu’s letter is a good start to that task.
“If your threat is, ‘Don’t defund the police because if you defund them, we’ll defund them even more,’ that seems a bit counterproductive if your goal is not to defund the police.”