First Nations look at forming own police service
Potential joint effort would be second organization of its kind in the province
When members of the northern Saskatchewan community of Little Pine First Nation call 911, it can take police hours — sometimes even a whole day — to respond.
“It’s always slow. Sometimes we’ll have issues and they’ll come up the next day and that’s not right. Nobody would be happy with a service like that,” said Little Pine Chief Wayne Semaganis.
“It’s like, as long as it happens on the reserve, it shouldn’t bother anybody. But it bothers us.”
Little Pine is policed by the RCMP, who are headquartered 20 kilometres to the south in the town of Cut Knife. As is the case in most rural areas in the province, police response time is a challenge.
Semaganis said he is tired of the status quo and wants a change. He’s spent more than two years working with band members and members of the neighbouring Poundmaker First Nation to explore the possibility of the two First Nations launching a joint First Nations police service that would oversee both communities and, in theory, respond to calls more quickly.
He doesn’t yet know how much such a venture would cost, but said he’s certain of one thing: “It’s something that’s needed in our community.”
ONLY ONE FIRST NATIONS POLICE SERVICE IN SASK.
Forming a First Nations police service is not unheard of. Under the federal government’s First Nations Policing Program (FNPP), First Nations can sign community tripartite agreements to have RCMP members provide policing services for them or they can manage their own.
In Saskatchewan, the only First Nation to operate its own police service is File Hills First Nation, located about 100 kilometres northeast of Regina. The community was once policed by the RCMP detachment in Balcarres, but it incorporated its own self-administered police service in December 2002.
Lennard Busch, chief of the File Hills First Nation Police Service, said a desire to improve response times was part of the reason the First Nation pushed to have a selfadministered police service, but there was more to it than that.
“It probably had a lot to do with self-determination, the belief that First Nations people should be policing First Nations communities,” he said.
Busch said the File Hills Police Service was made possible because the First Nation, provincial government and federal government were all willing to get on board and contribute money 15 years ago.
He said he’s surprised no other First Nation police services have started in Saskatchewan since.
“But, at the same time, I realize that because it is so expensive to start up a police service, I do understand that there’s some reluctance on the part of government to spend the money right now,” he said.
LIMITED FUNDS BLAMED
Dwayne Zacharie, president of the First Nations Chiefs of Police Association, said he can’t think of any First Nations police services that have formed in Canada in the last decade.
“There are no resources. There are no extra funds that are coming into the (First Nations Policing) program,” he said. “As it is, all of the funds are earmarked for all of the existing services so the only way, at this point, (to form a new service) would be to take away from what there already is.”
Zacharie said when his community of Kahnawake in Quebec started its own police service in 1979, it operated for more than a decade before it started receiving money from the FNPP.
“Prior to that, our community did whatever it had to do in order to make sure the police service was funded. They didn’t pave roads, they didn’t buy snow removal equipment, they didn’t buy new trucks for public works. They cut corners in a lot of ways to make sure that they were able to provide this service to their community,” he said.
In late 2016, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale promised the government would overhaul the outdated FNPP, but no details on when or how this will happen have yet been released.
“I’ve heard some police directors say that their kids, when they talk about getting into policing, they’re telling them, ‘Well, don’t get into First Nations policing,’ because they don’t see a future for us because the funding is lacking, the resources are lacking,” Zacharie said.
Unlike other jurisdictions in the country, First Nations have limited options for funding police services. This fall, in response to complaints about how long it took RCMP to respond to calls in the area, the town of Langham held a non-binding plebiscite asking residents if they were prepared to increase their property taxes in order to fund a local police force. Langham residents voted overwhelming against the proposition.
Such a move isn’t possible for First Nations because they don’t have tax bases. This means the only way they can fund police services is by getting money from the FNPP. That frustrates Zacharie.
“The First Nations Policing Program is failing us and it needs to be changed. First Nations policing needs to be recognized as an essential service,” he said.
Cory Lerat, executive director of police quality and innovation for Saskatchewan, said the province is “anxiously waiting ” to hear how the federal government is revamping the FNPP. He said he’s been talking to Little Pine and Poundmaker about how they would start a First Nations police service, but it’s difficult to move forward without knowing how such a service would be funded in the future.
“I’ve been in contact with Ottawa trying to get a sense as to when they’re going to release the new policy, but they haven’t given me a date,” he said.
“There’s a lot of what ifs, so it’s interesting times right now.”
INDIGENOUS OFFICERS HARD TO COME BY
Even if a First Nation police service gets funding, it can be difficult for the service to meet the expectations of its community.
Semaganis said if Little Pine and Poundmaker get funding to move ahead with a joint First Nations police force, the goal would be to have all of its officers be Indigenous. It simply makes sense, he said. “A white police officer, when you listen to two people in the back talking in Cree, you don’t know what they’re saying,” he said. “But if you’re a Cree-speaking police officer it’s really helping your work knowing what’s going on, what’s being said. It just makes it easier to do your job.”
When Little Pine signed its community tripartite agreement with the provincial and federal governments, the RCMP committed to having three Indigenous officers police the community. But Semaganis said that hasn’t happened because there are simply not enough Indigenous RCMP officers.
Zacharie said recruiting First Nations officers is “extremely difficult.” Part of the problem is education; First Nations students are more likely than non-First Nations students to drop out of high school, which makes them ineligible to apply to be police officers.
Another challenge is that there are few Indigenous police officers to serve as role models.
“Policing has a stigma attached to it,” Zacharie said. “It’s not a natural career path, generally, for First Nations communities.”
“(The officers) have to be able to understand our people, they have to be able to talk the language and they’ve got to deal with us on a dayto-day basis, not just when something occurs.”
The RCMP aims to have at least 10 per cent of its officers self-identify as Indigenous. As of April 1, that number was at eight per cent nationwide.
In Saskatchewan, where Indigenous people make up 16 per cent of the population, 14 per cent of officers self-identify as Indigenous.
An emailed statement from the RCMP said it is “working towards” its national goal of 10 per cent and that its recruiting unit brings materials to career fairs at First Nations schools and to cultural events such as powwows.
The RCMP “is fully supportive of Indigenous communities being more self-reliant and of any efforts to develop First Nations-led policing options that might better meet the needs of those communities,” the statement added.
“If communities determine they want to establish their own police services, the RCMP is committed to working in partnership with those First Nations to assist them in making self-policing a reality.”
Semaganis said he hopes that can come to fruition soon.
“For us to have only one Aboriginal police service in Saskatchewan, I’m not surprised,” he said. “But do we need more? Yes, definitely, we need more.”
There are no resources. There are no extra funds that are coming into the (First Nations Policing) program.