Victoria’s mayor wants the province to start creating regional police departments.
A new all-party report on policing in BC recommends replacing the RCMP with a provincial force and creating regional departments. Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps hopes the province will start with the regional departments measure first.
Creating a new provincial force would take years, he said Thursday, but merging the departments of the capital region could be achieved sooner.
“You have to start somewhere, and starting with fragmented policing in our region, in Metro Vancouver, in the Okanagan, are easier wins for the government than creating a whole new provincial police service.”
Helps was responding to a report from a committee seeking changes to the BC Police Act. The special committee, made up of members of the legislature from all three parties, was established to consider reforms for independent oversight, training, funding, service delivery and other issues that would streamline law enforcement.
The report says the committee was appointed amid awareness of systemic racism, a demand for greater accountability, and questions about responses to mental health and addiction issues.
The committee said its 11 recommendations are interconnected and complement each other, with the first being the introduction of a new Police Law with input from indigenous peoples and local governments.
BC has 13 separate police forces, including four in the capital region: Saanich, Oak Bay, Central Saanich, and VicPD, which covers both Victoria and Esquimalt. The RCMP polices the rest of Vancouver Island, parts of the Lower Mainland, and nearly all of rural BC
The issue of policing in the South Island has long been contentious, with Victoria pushing for a merger of departments but other municipalities resisting. Esquimalt, which this week began surveying its citizens about their thoughts on policing in the community, has chafed at being Victoria’s only law enforcement partner.
Helps recalled that when the provincial government decided to force the merger of the departments of Victoria and Esquimalt in 2002, the move was supposed to be the first step towards creating a regional force. “That first step was taken 20 years ago. Maybe now, 20 years later, we can take the second step.”
Helps and Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins are co-chairs of the VicPD board, which made a presentation to the legislative committee calling for a merger of the police.
“It would be really nice to have regionalization here as a key priority,” Helps said. “The government now has a recommendation that the most effective way to provide police services in our region is through a merged police service.”
Helps also said merging the capital region’s forces would give the province a chance to “experiment” with a new way of governing regional departments. Following the Victoria-Esquimalt model, with a mayor-led board, each of the 13 area mayors would serve as co-chairs. “It does not make any sense”.
“Our report outlines a vision for community policing and safety that is grounded in decolonization, anti-racism, community and responsibility,” committee chairman Doug Routley, a NDP government member, told the legislature.
Some of the report’s 11 recommendations can be implemented quickly, but others will require “many years and successive parliaments,” Routley said. “Our recommendations aim to provide police officers with the tools and support they need to ensure that British Columbians have equitable access to high-quality policing and community safety services in all communities across the province.”
He said an integral component of this will be addressing systemic racism in policing and a lack of trust between people, communities and the police.
Liberal Dan Davies, vice chairman of the committee, told the legislature that over the past year and a half, he has heard hundreds of witness statements from law enforcement agencies, social service providers, municipalities and members of the public, including those from “diverse and marginalized “. populations.”
“There are incredible challenges that we all know all too well around mental health and addictions, challenges in the justice system,” he said.
To address policing inconsistencies and improve accountability, the report recommends transitioning to a new provincial police service, rather than continuing the contract with the RCMP.
A statement from RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald, the commanding officer in BC, said they will take some time to review the report and until it is complete they will not speculate on next steps.
“The RCMP has a complex role in BC as we provide services at the municipal, provincial and federal levels,” he said.
BC’s contract with the RCMP expires in 2032.
“I am so proud of the RCMP team who work incredibly hard every day to keep BC communities safe and we remain committed to doing so,” McDonald said.
Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said the committee’s recommendations reflect the government’s belief that everyone deserves equal treatment from the police.
“This has not always been the case for many indigenous, black, and other people of color. The public trust requires that the provision of police services is fair, equitable and responsive to all British Columbians,” he said in a statement.
Farnworth said they will discuss the recommendations this summer with indigenous partners, community organizations, health and mental health groups, police leaders, agencies and police oversight bodies.
Reference-www.timescolonist.com