Should We Change Our Police Act?

SomeDropsInTheBucket

AreLargerThanOthersVille

I must confess that, what with all that is going on in the world at the moment, the following story barely registered before it slid right on by:

The Vancouver Police Department has won its appeal to the B.C. government to receive $5.7 million in funding that it was denied in the city's 2021 budget.

The police board received a ruling in writing Monday from (former RCMP assistant commissioner) Wayne Rideout, (the current provincial) assistant deputy minister and director of police services, ordering the money be restored.

The board had appealed a December 2020 vote by Vancouver city council to freeze police funding in the 2021 city budget...

But then I read an opinion piece from Paul Willcocks in the Tyee that helped me understand that something considerably more important than $6 million of a total $340 million annual VPD budget  is at stake here.

Because, essentially, the way our police act is currently written means that, when push comes to shove, elected officials have no power in the ultimate decision making process machinery.

Mr. Willcocks explains:

...The Police Act says non-elected police boards don’t have to accept budget decisions by city councils. They can appeal them to the provincial director of police services — Rideout — who rules on what projects taxpayers must fund, how many new officers departments can hire and policing priorities...

But, what's the problem with that? After all, police boards are entirely qualified to overturn the decisions of city councils, right?

Well...

Mr. Willcocks further explains:

...The police boards can have up to nine members. The mayor is chair, and can only vote to break a tie. Council can name one member. And the rest are appointed by the province.

The boards — with no public accountability — hire and fire the police chief, sets priorities and the police budget. The board can consider council’s priorities or community concerns. But it makes the decisions.

And if there’s a conflict, the director of police services rules...

Gosh.

Can you imagine if we allowed armed services boards, overseen by a general, to make all the decisions about military budgets, priorities and personnel?

Or,  doctors, and...

Or, teachers, and...

Or, roadmakers, and...

Or, perhaps worst of all, cell biologists who think that all mankind would be best served if there was a PCR machine and a tissue culture incubator on every corner...

The point being that, even if folks on such boards do their best to be conscientious, there were always be concerns about cloistered thinking and potential conflicts of self-interest, not to mention concerns about a lack of democratic accountability.

Luckily, there is, as Mr. Willcocks points out, another, more balanced way to go:

...(O)ther jurisdictions have struck a better balance. Ontario gives city councils in larger municipalities the ability to appoint a majority of police board members. Disputes between police boards and councils go to the Ontario Civilian Police Commission, an independent tribunal...

{snip}

There is a chance of change in B.C. An all-party committee of MLAs has been reviewing the Police Act and will deliver recommendations for change...

Here's hoping that our democratically elected provincial representatives manage to put partisanship aside on this one and do the right thing.

OK?



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Of course, as indicated by the image at the top of the post, it is entirely possible that the illustrious cell biology board run amok would also mandate practice amps along with those incubators...

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