Advocating for the decriminalization of simple possession of drugs and providing compensation to police board members are two actions the New Westminster Police Board can take immediately in the pursuit of police reform.
At its Sept. 21 meeting, the police board considered a report from NWPD Insp. Diana McDaniel regarding to the city’s submission to the province about police reform. The city’s submission includes items related to: developing a new model of community response; centring racialized and vulnerable populations; understanding the current state of policing through the collection, interpretation and control of data; and re-evaluating police board appointments and budgeting.
“I was tasked to provide some feedback to the board regarding immediate actions that the board could take with respect to police reform,” McDaniel told the board.
Those actions include advocating for the decriminalization of the simple possession of controlled substances and supporting the province in seeking a federal exemption to decriminalize simple possession of controlled substances.
“In addition to initiatives that are ongoing, the board can immediately act by developing a new model of community response with regards to the decriminalization of drugs,” McDaniel told the board. “The City of Vancouver has submitted a final proposal to Health Canada in June of this year, and it was the first jurisdiction in the country to apply for an exemption from federal drug laws.”
The police board will also consider the implementation of compensation to board members.
“This will allow the opportunity for underrepresented people to serve on the police board,” McDaniel said. “This would include a per diem for attendance at meetings, for example. This is similar to other municipal police boards in the province that are already being provided this per diem.”
In response to the province’s creation of a Special Committee on Reforming the Police Act, the City of New Westminster made a written and an oral submission about the approach it would like to see taken. Work is underway to modernize the Police Act and to consider the role of police when it comes to issues like mental health, addictions and harm reduction and to consider the scope of systemic racism within police agencies.
McDaniel said “considerable work” is taking place in relation to the proposals in the city’s report to the special committee. That includes the development of a DEIAR (diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism) framework, which will promote diversity in leadership, staff and recruitment.
According to McDaniel, an external consultant is also completing an operational review of the New Westminster Police Department.
“The analysis and recommendations will assist us in aligning with the city report in many of its goals. One of these is reprioritizing resources away from the enforcement of laws against our vulnerable population that would be better served by a community care framework,” she said. “There will also be a report completed on police reforms being conducted across North America and best practices in health management.”
According to the staff report, the city’s submission to the Special Committee on the Reform of the Police Act focused on those experiencing mental health crisis, poverty and homelessness, and how the most vulnerable most often encounter police throughout their lives.
“The report proposed alternatives to police involvement which focused on housing, health care and community services,” said the report to the police board. “The report acknowledged that the NWPD provides a ‘compassionate response to calls for service’ but also postulated that police are often not the most appropriate response to certain types of calls.”
The police department will provide updates on the two recommendations at the police board’s meeting in January 2023.
“There is a lot of work going on. We by no means think that these two relatively minor moves is going to encompass all the work we are going to do on it,” NWPD Chief Const. Dave Jansen told the police board. “It was simply that these are things that we saw the board had within their control and we could act on right now and answer some of the things that the city has put forward.”
Follow Theresa McManus on Twitter @TheresaMcManus
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