Halifax needs to transform policing by integrating its local force and RCMP, study says
CBC
A new report calls for dramatic policing changes in Halifax to integrate the city's municipal police and RCMP, saying the current system is the "root cause" of many issues.
The Policing Model Transformation Study was released Friday ahead of next Tuesday's meeting of all council members to discuss the matter.
At over 400 pages, the report from consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers provides a detailed roadmap for a better policing structure in Halifax — underpinned by the clear message that the municipality does not have an integrated policing model, even though it has long been called that.
It suggests two ways forward for Halifax: create a truly integrated model or pick one agency to deliver policing.
"This is a pivotal report in my opinion," Coun. Becky Kent, chair of the Halifax Board of Police Commissioners, said Friday.
"Change can happen. It should happen. It's being talked about across the country around policing, so this is a pathway to it."
Since amalgamation in 1996, RCMP have handled the rural parts of Halifax while Halifax Regional Police take urban calls.
Council asked for an analysis of the current situation two years ago. The report comes at a time when the province is planning to review overall policing in Nova Scotia, and finalize the province's policing standards.
The report said the Halifax Regional Municipality now has a "dual policing model," meaning both services operate in silos, and bringing different responses to the same residents.
"The presence of two disconnected police operating models in HRM is the root cause of many of the challenges faced today," the report says.
The report recommends the integrated model because it said that choice would be cheaper, happen more quickly, and be safer and better for the public in the long run. It would see the RCMP and Halifax police operate together as one entity with the same training, policies and standards.
The force would report directly to a strengthened board of police commissioners. That would be a major shift, as right now Halifax RCMP report to RCMP leadership in Nova Scotia and, ultimately, Ottawa.
The RCMP have resisted change in the past despite numerous reports calling for a review of the force's structure and training, including most recently the scathing Mass Casualty Commission's (MCC) report into the 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting.
The report also recommended that civilians respond to health and wellness calls. That is already a major goal of Halifax's current public safety strategy, the MCC report and a police defunding report in Halifax.
Run 3 Space | Play Space Running Game
Traffic Jam 3D | Online Racing Game
Duck Hunt | Play Old Classic Game
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government is working to entice a private-sector player to build a crude oil pipeline to coastal waters.
An Ontario judge has ruled that a Toronto woman accused of killing three people in three Ontario cities last year is now fit to stand trial.
In a sign that Canada and the U.S. are making progress toward some sort of trade agreement, CBC News and Radio-Canada have learned about the existence of a working document outlining details of a potential deal.
The Charlottetown Farmers' Market is warning local businesses that someone is impersonating the market's email account in an attempt to run a scam.
The wildfire-induced smoke currently blanketing the Calgary area, is so bad Environment Canada is telling people to go back inside, in an air quality warning issued early Wednesday.
The old-fashioned clipboard and pen is slowly being replaced at the entrance to waste recovery facilities in eastern Newfoundland, as the board running the sites implements an access card system so it can collect better data on who's using the facilities, and what they're dropping off.
Sudbury and many other parts of northeastern Ontario are at the centre of an outbreak of tent caterpillars, as the insects' population has exploded.
Diana Moser has, to the best of her knowledge, not contracted Lyme disease, a welcome status quo that might be credited to the tick-repellant clothing she wears in the yard of her East LaHave, N.S., home, or to the insect spray she squirts on herself, or to just plain-old luck.
Jillian and Jody Shealy have spent the past two decades cheering their kids on from the sidelines of just about every sport that's offered in the city, taking them to rinks, fields and arenas across the greater Fredericton area.
A mother and her three-year-old are dead after drowning in a pool inside a residence in the city's Lachine borough.
The city of Flin Flon in northwestern Manitoba has faced wildfires and a massive evacuation — and now a fake online site has popped up claiming a clothing warehouse in the city burned down, and the single-mom owner has to sell off what's left.
Some people forced from their homes by wildfires in northern Saskatchewan will soon start making their way home, as conditions improve in the La Ronge area.
After a long wait, chiropractors practising on Prince Edward Island are now able to order X-rays to help them diagnose and treat patients.