Publishing Date
Last week, the Special Committee on Reforming the Police Act released its final report, Transforming Policing and Community Safety in British Columbia. In preparation for the release of this report, UBCM has appointed local government representatives to a Roundtable established to work with the province on policing modernization.
As part of its final report, the Special Committee has delivered 11 recommendations for the provincial government’s consideration:
- Implement a new Community Safety and Policing Act to govern the provision of policing and public safety services based on values of decolonization, anti-racism, community, and accountability. This includes:
- Ensuring Indigenous peoples and nations, and municipal governments, are engaged in the drafting of the legislation.
- Transition to a new BC provincial police service that is governed by the new Community Safety and Policing Act. This includes:
- Establishing a governance model, such as municipal or regional police boards or committees, that is representative of the community and provides opportunities for local input on policing and public safety priorities.
- Ensuring municipal council representation on municipal police boards or committees, while not allowing the mayor to serve as board chair.
- Amalgamating police services on a regional basis where there are opportunities to address fragmentation, ensure equitable access to policing and public safety, and improve efficiency and effectiveness.
- Enabling two police of jurisdiction to facilitate the process of transitioning from one service to another.
- Ensure all Indigenous communities have direct input into their police service structure and governance, including self-administered services which could provide policing to neighbouring non-Indigenous communities.
- Create and appropriately fund a continuum of response to mental health, addictions and other complex social issues with a focus on prevention and community-led responses and ensuring appropriate first response. This includes:
- Increasing coordination and integration across police, health, mental health, and social services.
- Integrating mental health within 911 call options.
- Ensure equitable access to high quality police and public safety services across BC. This includes:
- Ensuring all policing is responsive to and informed by the community.
- Implementing and enforcing provincial standards, policies, and expectations for service with respect to responding to individuals experiencing a mental health crisis, conducting wellness checks, responding to sexual assault, and conducting trauma-informed interviews.
- Adopting a dynamic and flexible approach to policing that provides for different categories of policing and public safety personnel who have clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and functions such as responding to non-violent incidents and other situations that may not require uniformed police.
- Expanding the use of culturally appropriate restorative justice programs throughout BC, including increased funding for these programs and education for police officers.
- Create a fair and equitable shared funding model for municipalities. This includes:
- Consideration of local needs, health and social supports, and the geography of a service delivery area.
- Exploring options to phase in or incrementally increase the municipal share of policing costs.
- Enhance and standardize initial and ongoing police education and training to reflect key values and competencies in order to shift police culture. This includes:
- Ensuring police and public safety services are representative of the diversity of the communities served (including diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality) via recruitment.
- Implementing screening and performance evaluation for existing officers and new recruits that reflects desired values and principles, including humility, honesty, empathy, and lack of bias and prejudice, to ensure that these individuals are best suited for their current position or for advancement and are a good fit for the community.
- Conducting regular mandatory psychological assessments for all police officers in BC.
- Enhancing and standardizing training required for police recruits and implementing mandatory and meaningful ongoing education with respect to anti-racism, cultural competency, and trauma-informed practices.
- Requiring police officers to complete training and education that is based on the historical, cultural, and socio-economic context of the communities in which they will be serving and is developed and delivered in consultation with the communities.
- Developing benchmarks to measure the efficacy of police training and education with respect to a shift in police culture and conduct.
- Require police services to collect and publicly report disaggregated race-based and other demographic data and conduct comprehensive reviews of and amend policies and procedures to address systemic racism in policing.
- Establish a single, independent, civilian-led oversight agency responsible for overseeing conduct, complaints, investigations, and disciplinary matters for all police and public safety personnel with powers or authority under the new Community Safety and Policing Act. This includes:
- Prioritizing the creation of stand-alone legislation for police oversight.
- Ensuring the oversight agency is reflective of the diverse population and cultures of BC.
- Providing navigation and triaging services to assist complainants throughout the complaints process.
- Implementing a multi-stream approach to processing complaints, expediating minor performance and procedural matters, and offering multiple resolution pathways such as direct conversations, mediation, or restorative justice.
- Revising the definition of misconduct to include demeaning and discriminatory conduct, language, jokes, statements, gestures, and related behaviours.
- Establishing a duty to cooperate with investigations and a duty to report misconduct for all police and public safety personnel with protections for reporting.
- That the Legislative Assembly immediately appoint an all-party parliamentary committee to undertake a broad review of the Mental Health Act with a view to modernizing the Act and ensuring it aligns with the recommendations in this report.
- That the Legislative Assembly establish an all-party select standing committee on policing and community safety to:
- Oversee the implementation of changes recommended in this report.
- Conduct regular reviews of the new Community Safety and Policing Act.
- Examine standards, policies, and programs related to the provision of policing and public safety in BC and report annually on this work.
- Work with key partners to address colonial structures and systemic racism in policing.
- Receive and review annual updates from the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General regarding emergent issues in policing and community safety and the effectiveness of police services in BC.
The Local Government Policing Modernization Roundtable will be meeting in the coming days to analyze and discuss the report’s recommendations in greater detail. The Roundtable was established by the Province as a forum for local governments to share their experience and knowledge and bring forward matters of interest or concerns respecting policing modernization, the Special Committee’s recommendations and other public safety priorities. The members of the Local Government Policing Modernization Roundtable are:
- Councillor Christine Boyle, City of Vancouver;
- Mayor Malcolm Brodie, City of Richmond;
- Councillor Vickey Brown, Village of Cumberland;
- Mayor George Harvie, City of Delta;
- Councillor Craig Hodge, City of Coquitlam;
- Councillor Dean Jantzen, City of Colwood;
- Councillor Gord Klassen, City of Fort St. John;
- Councillor Jennifer Leach, District of Lillooet;
- Mayor David Wilks, District of Sparwood;
- Francis Cheung, City of Langley;
- Dave Critchley, City of Burnaby;
- Steffan Klassen, Town of Creston;
- Byron McCorkell, City of Kamloops;
- Paul Gill, UBCM Consultant;
- Bhar Sihota, UBCM