A prominent St. Albertan is adding his voice to those supporting the creation of a policing committee in the city.
Dr. Kristopher Wells, more commonly known for his advocacy work on behalf of sexual and gender minorities, has also spent several years as co-chair of Edmonton’s Police Chief’s Community Advisory Council, which serves a role similar to what is being proposed for St. Albert’s policing committee.
He said from his perspective, having a form of civilian oversight separate from council is a pretty clear choice.
“Hopefully council will get moving on this and get it up and running,” he said. “We’ve been without any mechanism to engage with the RCMP for quite some time now.”
St. Albert had a policing advisory committee up until spring 2015, when then-detachment-commander Insp. Kevin Murray disbanded it saying it was ineffective at its stated purpose.
Coun. Bob Russell campaigned on re-establishing a policing committee leading up to the byelection June 24, 2015, and has since promoted the issue in council chambers.
Council is expected to debate a draft of the proposed committee’s guiding principles soon, after the matter was postponed at its Oct. 17 meeting.
The current process has the RCMP liaising with the mayor, and by extension the rest of council, with respect to policing issues within the community. The proposed new committee would instead place that responsibility with a board of 11 civilians, which council would appoint.
Wells said he hopes council will move forward quickly in establishing the committee, noting the kind of benefits “direct civilian involvement and engagement” could have in the community.
“I would be concerned we don’t have an appropriate mechanism in place, as citizens, to engage in that dialogue,” he said. “From my perspective, when is transparency and accountability ever a bad thing?”
He spoke of the significant impact the Edmonton police chief’s advisory committee has had in policing on that community, especially with respect to having a diverse committee representing vulnerable communities in order to raise particular issues of concern if and when they arise.
But Wells said ultimately, while the role of a committee member would be to provide a certain level of accountability in policing, it’s not an adversarial relationship. Rather, he described his role on the Edmonton committee as that of a “critical friend.”
And regardless of the committee’s makeup, he said it presents a great opportunity for not just citizens to liaise with the RCMP, but also to take the RCMP’s message back out to the community.
“The RCMP has in this case a better chance to explain how it operates, educate civilians who often end up becoming ambassadors,” he said.
Wells did express some concern with the makeup of the committee now being proposed for St. Albert, as it is outlined in the draft guiding principles. For example, he suggested 11 was far too many people for an effective committee and suggested five or seven would serve the community just as well.
While no firm date has been set, the matter is expected to return to council by the end of the year.
