P.E.I. police review report includes call for civilian oversight

Prince Edward Island should have a civilian board to provide oversight of policing in the province, and to make recommendations for changes in policing standards to the minister of justice.

That's one of 32 recommendations from the latest report in an ongoing review of law enforcement in the province.

That report, by the firm ADGA, was completed in July 2021 and released publicly by the province Wednesday.

A civilian board could provide an avenue for members of the public to provide input on policing, and should include representation from diverse communities, the report says.

The report also calls for a working group to review existing standards that police forces in the province are required to meet, and to consider whether those standards should be expanded to include "specialty investigative areas such as the investigation of sexual offences."

P.E.I. has the highest rate in the country when it comes to sexual assault complaints that police end up deeming "unfounded."

Recently members of the Charlottetown Police Service were called to appear before a provincial standing committee after concerns were raised around how the force has dealt with complaints regarding date-rape drugs.

The report released Wednesday concludes that based on the results of an online survey and 73 interviews with key stakeholders, Islanders "feel safe" and "are being well-served by their police forces."

But the report points to concerns around the lack of an emergency response team (ERT) on P.E.I. to provide tactical response capability in the event of a serious incident or threat to public safety.

An agreement among RCMP, Charlottetown and Summerside police providing for a joint ERT based in P.E.I. expired in 2018. Since then, ERT responses have been available through an RCMP unit based in New Brunswick, while the Charlottetown Police Service has developed its own containment team to provide some capability.

The report includes a number of recommendations to improve co-ordination and co-operation among police forces on P.E.I., pointing to the success of joint forces operations involving RCMP in Prince County, together with municipal police in Summerside and Kensington, as a model which should be emulated.

Some further recommendations:

The July 2021 report follows up on a 2017 policing review which examined the possibility of making fundamental changes in terms of how policing is carried out in P.E.I. — for example, establishing a single, provincial police force as provinces like Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador have done.

But five years after that initial report, the province says it still hasn't answered the fundamental question of what P.E.I.'s overall policing model should look like.