Prof says BPS should be more transparent

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This article was published 03/04/2023 (1256 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While Brandon’s police chief thanked staff for their efforts and work throughout the year, a Brandon University professor says that the force has more work to do when it comes to being transparent with the public after the release of its 2022 annual report and strategic plan on Thursday afternoon.

Together the report and the plan detailed a successful drug bust, various community engagement initiatives as well as a selection of 27 “compliment an officer” messages that the Brandon Police Service received from the community last year.

“It’s my pleasure to do the annual report and the strategic plan because it really highlights the efforts and work of all of our staff throughout the year,” BPS Chief Wayne Balcaen said in an interview with the Sun.

The report and plan made mention of positive community feedback in the form of contacts through the police chief’s general email inbox. The plan’s public engagement section noted that of the 447 “contacts” received, 27 were “compliment an officer” — positive messages about police officers from members of the public.

BU prof Chris Schneider, who has written extensively on policing, says the public should know what those other 420 messages were about as well.

“The police have a single clientele. The clientele is the public and they should be accountable to the public. That should include spotlighting the negative [and] hearing how they did better,” he told the Sun. “Or if they did better, or if they ignored it.”

The professor also noted that the governance section of the plan, which describes BPS as having “ongoing relationships and open and transparent communication” with Manitoba’s police watchdog, the Independent Investigation Unit, stated that no charges were laid against BPS officers, but did not state the number of IIU complaints involving BPS.

The IIU operates as a police oversight body and receives notifications when an incident involving policing agencies involves a death or serious injury. The unit then decides whether it is in the public interest to investigate the incident.

According to the IIU’s 2021-22 annual report, it received six notifications of incidents involving BPS, which comprised nine per cent of IIU notifications in Manitoba.

“If they want to invoke the word transparency and be transparent, then the bad has to come with the good,” Schneider said. “And I think the public should know more about that.”

BPS will be doing more reporting on domestic assaults, the plan stated. Police statistics currently track assaults in general without distinction for the specific numbers of assaults that are between domestic partners.

“Intimate partner violence is always a concern for us,” Balcaen told the Sun. “[It’s] one of the areas that we certainly focus on and want to make sure that survivors are given the proper due attention that’s required in these situations.”

Balcaen was not able to confirm whether the domestic assault numbers will be released in next year’s report.

Also published in the report were last year’s crime statistics. Charges relating to drug possession and trafficking were down slightly in 2022 from 118 in 2021 to 98 in 2022, which Balcaen attributes to BPS drug investigations.

Numbers of charges in the “offensive weapons” category were 35 per cent higher than the previous year. Balcaen said that BPS is seeing more people in the community with edge weapons, knives, hatchets and machetes.

“More and more people that we’re dealing with as a police service are carrying weapons or have weapons with them. A lot of times, this is in lockstep with the people that are involved in the drug subtrade,” he said. “And even people that are users or people who are dependent on certain drugs, that can cause a paranoia — and a lot of people carry weapons with them.”

The most significant increase, however, was in the number of charges handed to youth in Brandon. The previous year, 2021, BPS laid 1,173 charges under the Youth Criminal Justice Act and in 2022, officers laid 1,642 charges. When asked about the 40 per cent increase, Balcaen said that he was not concerned with the 2022 number as the pandemic disrupted court services and probation in recent years, so the numbers reflect a return to regular operation as well as new charges.

“Now that we’ve returned to normal, we’re seeing the same return of the number of incidents that we’re facing,” he said.

However, even in pre-pandemic years, according to BPS reports, numbers of charges BPS laid under the YCJA haven’t been as high as 2022. In 2018 and 2019, 103 charges and 59 charges were laid, respectively. The numbers then dipped during the pandemic in 2020 to just 43, then shot up in 2021 to 1,173, which continued to increase in 2022.

Among other highlights of the report was the confirmation of the $215,000 deficit figure, which was released as an estimate in March at a Police Board meeting. The police chief said that plans to keep the budget in check next year include reducing police officer overtime costs through the hiring of community cadets, as well as discussions with the province about the system of medical clearances so officers spend less time waiting in the emergency room of the hospital.

Balcaen stated that costs associated with last year’s requirement to transport prisoners to Winnipeg Remand Centre contributed to the deficit, as did rising fuel costs.

The Sun reached out to the police chief with questions about the IIU notifications and the emails to BPS from the public, but did not receive a response by press time.

» gmortfield@brandonsun.com