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BLACK-SHEEP COMMENTARIES IT’S TIME TO OPPALIZE POLICE BOARDS HEY THERE! You folks in West Vancouver; what’s going on with your municipal police board?On Sept. 14 the North Shore News ran a lengthy investigative article by reporter James Weldon headlined “WV Police Leadership Criticized – Uncensored Report More Damning.” Weldon discovered that “(a) portion of a 2004 provincial review of the West Vancouver Police Department, censored from the original report at the request of the police board, is strongly critical of the department’s leadership style.” And on the relationship between the police board and council, Weldon quoted Coun. John Clark: “There’s been very little communication between the police board and the council on an ongoing basis. We, as council, are aware that that went on, but we got very little information, if any, from it. … This lock on information is just fundamentally wrong.” It seems that there is a dysfunctional relationship between some members of West Vancouver’s council and the police board. The Police Act requires that unelected municipal police boards are to govern and direct municipal police. They are to determine the priorities and objectives of their police. The Act requires a police board to make rules for the “efficient discharge of duties and functions by the municipal police department and the municipal constables.” The board is to appoint the chief and all other constables and employees. At present all police boards have seven members: the mayor, one person appointed by municipal council and five persons appointed by the provincial cabinet. So far as I can determine, the following persons are members or members-to-be of West Vancouver’s police board: Mayor Ron Wood, chairman, executive search consultant, sworn in Jan. 27, 2000; Cecil Brown, business psychologist, sworn in Jan.31, 2003; Russell Fraser, professional engineer, sworn in July 11, 2002; Patricia Gallivan, QC, partner in law firm, sworn in July 11, 2002; Ardath Hoole, high school counselor, sworn in Jan. 25, 2001; Lis Pedersen, labour relations specialist, to be sworn in Oct. 27, 2005, and Mark Reder, managing-director, communications and government relations consulting firm, to be sworn in Oct. 27. Who are these people? Do you know any of them? I can only assume that cabinet appointees to the board are honest and civic-minded people. Yet they are handicapped by the fact that there was no opportunity for members of council, the media and residents to scrutinize their qualification to govern a police force and their views on policing. By a most delightful quirk of fate, or providence, there is one person eminently qualified to persuade the government to amend The Police Act: Attorney General Wallace Oppal. In June 1992, a Commission of Inquiry into Policing in British Columbia was ordered by then-Attorney General Colin Gabelmann. Oppal, then a judge, was appointed Commissioner. On July 31, 1994, Oppal sent his report and recommendations to Gabelmann. Closing the Gap, Policing and The Community ought to be dusted off, reprinted and revisited by all municipal councillors and members of the legislature. Oppal’s recommendations concerning police boards are absolutely on the mark. They include: -A majority of board members to be appointed by municipal council (not Cabinet); -Board members must either be residents or have a primary place of business in the municipality; -Only persons eligible to be elected as councillors shall be appointed to a police board; -Appointments to be for a fixed term of four years with one renewal; -The mayor to be an ex officio member only and may not vote; -Police board vacancies to be advertised and applications solicited for such vacancies; -Applicants to be short-listed by a committee of council; -Short-listed applicants to be interviewed in public by council about their qualifications and their views about policing; -Potential provincial cabinet appointees to be subjected to the same scrutiny, and -Formal notification of the outcome of the selection process to be given to unsuccessful candidates and, upon request, written reasons why they were not recommended for appointment. Oppal recommended that “a municipal council may only exercise global budget approval and may only accept the police department budget presented to it by the community police board or refer it back to the board with instructions that it be altered upward or downward by a specific dollar amount or percentage.” Because upwards of 45,000 people live in West Vancouver and the cost of policing is now over 8 million dollars, the police budget ought to be scrutinized to establish that it is fielding – with minimal officialism and red tape – enough properly equipped officers to ensure public safety and the suppression of property crime. All candidates in the upcoming municipal election ought to consider their position on what appears to be a dysfunctional relationship between West Vancouver’s council and police board, and a consequent urgent need to persuade the provincial government to amend the Police Act. Oppal’s recommendations are all about the importance of democratic legitimacy in the appointment of board members. In the least, a public confirmation process would carry with it substantial moral authority and strengthen the police board in its governance of the constabulary, its dealings with the chief constable and its relationship with members of council. The existing process can no longer be justified. At the end of this controversy, West Vancouver police and their new chief constable must be free from interference in their operational role. What is at stake in all of this is the well being of all municipal police and the opportunity to improve their relationship with both elected councils and communities they serve. Police are the most essential component in the criminal justice system. They represent the people and, unlike an army, must enforce the law in a way that satisfies the Courts and public opinion. It’s time to Oppalize all municipal police boards. |
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