Thousands of complaints keep RCMP, RNC busy
Police are willing to work with whatever details complainants can provide
A St. John’s metro area woman noticed four extra vehicles parked outside a neighbour’s home over the weekend. Believing it was a sign her neighbour was hosting a gathering that appeared to involve more than five people, she decided to call the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.
“I thought it was something that’s discouraged,” said the woman, who did not want her name published. “I’m thinking about all these people who can’t see their new grandchildren or all these people who can’t go to the old folks home to visit their elderly relatives, new lovers who can’t visit each other anymore. It didn’t seem fair that people could just get together and have a barbecue.”
When she contacted police, she was told to fill out an online public report form about the incident. This did not sit well with the complainant, who expected police would send someone to investigate.
“I thought a car might turn up and suggest to them that what they were doing was a dumb idea,” she said.
MANY REPORTS
Police in Newfoundland and Labrador have so far handled a lot of public complaints related to compliance with the public health measures in place to address the COVID19 pandemic.
As of Tuesday, RCMP in the province had received just over 1,100 reports since March 18 about suspected violations of public health measures, and concluded 916 of them.
The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary had 2,232 complaints from the online reporting system as of Tuesday, with over 1,600 of those found to be within the RNC’S policing jurisdiction. Over 1,500 of those were concluded, with many requiring only a follow-up phone call; 123 reports were forwarded to other officers to investigate further.
Representatives of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary and the RCMP both confirmed to The Telegram that the online public report form is the preferred method for relaying information about potential non-compliance matters.
“This mechanism has been put in place to ensure that COVID-19 dedicated information is going to the resource that we have in place,” RNC media relations officer Const. James Cadigan said.
He said the team dedicated to handling COVID-19 matters can then determine if a violation has occurred and from there decide whether the matter merits follow-up phone calls or an investigation.
EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES
Sgt. Maj. Doug Pack leads a team reviewing complaints for areas policed by local RCMP detachments. He noted there are some extenuating circumstances where an officer at a local detachment would take a complaint, such as if a person does not have access to the internet.
“You’ve got to be reasonable with things, too, but overall, the vast majority are coming through the online reporting system,” Pack said.
In the case of the woman who had suspicions about her neighbour, she did not know their name. Pack said RCMP officers can start from whatever information a complainant has and fill in the blanks as needed.
“If we have a means to contact them to get further information, we will do that,” Pack said. “In a lot of cases, they don’t know who they’re talking about or they don’t know the person or individuals they’re referring to.”
“The most information that can be provided will certainly assist us the most, but we have the ability to follow up and ensure that if a particular complaint poses a risk to the community, we have the capability of following up on that,” Cadigan said.
ASSESSING REPORTS
Pack’s team consists of officers working from home who can assess the reports and, if they deem there’s a legitimate complaint involved, follow up on the matter over the phone.
“In the course of our review, if we find the situation is such that it cannot be addressed properly over a phone call … then we’ll assign it to a detachment where the incident has occurred,” Pack said, noting only 115 matters have been forwarded to detachments as of Tuesday.
Those matters included parties and people failing to self-isolate upon returning to the province.
“Those kinds of things, we’re following up, and if we feel that need be, we would recommend laying a ticket or charge, but we haven’t found those yet,” Pack added.
As for the phone calls, Pack said they have usually functioned as an opportunity to educate.
“A lot of people are unaware. They say, ‘Well, I’m not sick.’ I go, ‘Well, it’s not about you being sick, necessarily. But if you come in contact with somebody who is and you’re not following the guidelines and the recommendations, you can pass that along.’ … The whole idea is about echoing what we’re been told by public health (officials). If people don’t move, then the virus doesn’t move.”
People on the other end of these calls have generally been amicable, he added.
“The thing we found, though, was that especially in the early parts of this in late March, early April, there was a lot of fear out there,” Pack said. “When our members were calling people, they didn’t know what, really, to do. I think our folks were able to provide a little bit of assurance and add a bit of calm to a situation whereby some of the people who were reporting didn’t know what to do. The fact they were able to be heard was a lot of it, just to alleviate some of their fears and concerns.”