ASIRT on track for busiest year on record

Alberta's police watchdog is on pace for its busiest year ever, while it also works through a backlog of investigations from up to six years earlier.

Alberta's police watchdog is on pace for its busiest year ever, while it also works through a backlog of investigations from up to six years earlier.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) says along with a spike in incidents they need to investigate in 2024 there are a few things helping them finalize cases more quickly.

CTV News has learned ASIRT is on track for a record number of investigations started and a record number of investigations completed in 2024.

“We are the most productive we've been thus far in the year in terms of concluding investigations but at the same juncture we've taken in more investigations at this time of the year than we ever had before,” said ASIRT director Mike Ewenson.

He said those numbers are based on the current pace, but things can vary month to month.

“We've had months where the phone hasn't rung at all and then we've had weekends where we've gotten two or three calls involving officer-involved shootings.”

The independent group investigates allegations of misconduct, serious injury, or death at the hands of police officers who are both on and off-duty.