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It would mean more eyes on police in Saskatchewan, but the province’s chiefs of police are welcoming a new Serious Incident Response Team announced in the budget.
On Tuesday, the province announced it’s setting aside $287,000 this year for a Serious Incident Response Team to be developed by the Public Complaints Commission. A news release said it will make Saskatchewan’s police oversight mechanisms consistent with other provinces.
The team would be deployed to investigate anytime someone is seriously hurt or killed while in police custody.
Regina Police Chief Evan Bray has said before that he supports more independent oversight of police.
“I think this is something that communities have been calling for in many ways, and certainly as a police community we welcome this, we think this is a good step in the right direction and it just provides, I think, another layer of oversight and transparency,” Bray said in response to the budget announcement.
Encouraging government to create a SIRT was part of a resolution passed by the Regina Board of Police Commissioners last summer.
Currently, police investigate their own serious incidents.
Rick Bourassa, chief of the Moose Jaw Police Service and president of the Saskatchewan Association of Chiefs of Police, said the association supports civilian oversight — though he also said there’s already a robust oversight model in the province.
“To enhance that, to make it even more effective and more independent of police agencies themselves, we certainly support initiatives that move us in that direction,” said Bourassa.
Bourassa said he knows some in the community didn’t like police investigating police, and he recognized that process wasn’t always as transparent as it could have been.
“I would suggest that it’s a legitimate concern that people have about the appearance of police investigating police,” said Bourassa.
He said if they can move to another model where there’s more transparency, it might put people’s minds at ease.
There haven’t been many details released yet on the team, just that it will operate under the auspices of the Public Complaints Commission. There hasn’t been any information on who will be on the team or when it will begin work.