N.L. to get its own stand-alone team to investigate police

An independent body dedicated to investigating serious incidents involving police will be established in Newfoundland and Labrador, the province announced Thursday morning.

A serious-incident response team will have the mission of looking into "matters of significant public interest that involve police," a news release from the Department of Justice and Public Safety said.

• Newfoundland and Labrador moving ahead with civilian-led oversight agency

Those matters could involve anything from death to serious injury to domestic violence.

Justice Minister Andrew Parsons said it was a priority for him, after hearing from members of the public about their confidence in the justice system.

"People were seeming to lose faith in whether police could investigate their own," he said. "You can't have that. Once you have that appearance, even if it's just perception, it creates that fear in people we don't want."

A job hunt is currently underway to hire the team's director, who will then be in charge of establishing the rest of the unit.

"I hope we have a process that's very in-depth," said Justice Minister Andrew Parsons, noting the job search is out of his hands, and will be handled by the provincial Human Resources Secretariat.

The director will be a civilian, not a police officer, and must also have a law degree.

Independent oversight teams in Alberta and Nova Scotia have provided help in the past for investigations into the conduct of police officers with the RCMP and Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.

Those investigations included the death of Don Dunphy, who was shot and killed by RNC Const. Joe Smyth in 2015.

Parsons said their oversight was perfectly adequate, but the province couldn't be at the mercy of someone else's availability.

'That well has dried up'

As a result of busy schedules and other changes, Parsons said their dependence on Alberta and Nova Scotia had to come to an end.

"We've been very lucky. Nova Scotia was very helpful to us, Alberta was extremely helpful. But it's become quite clear that well has dried up."

Currently, there are five ongoing investigations by outside agencies, according to the Department of Justice.

Four of those involve the RNC, three of which stem from 2017, and one involves the RCMP, from 2018.

Parsons made reference to having trouble securing outside investigators "quite recently." Having to wait for help is far from ideal when time is of the essence, he said.

It became evident as we moved through the process that this might delay things being done.- Andrew Parsons

The Ontario Provincial Police are currently investigating the police shooting of Jorden McKay, a Corner Brook man, in November.

There was talk of partnering with the Atlantic provinces to form a regional team, but Parsons said the discussions dried up after Nova Scotia's team switched directors.

They could have continued talking about forming a team, Parsons said, but his department wanted to move quickly.

"It became evident as we moved through the process that this might delay things being done."

How does it work?

It's unclear how much the entire team will cost the province, but Parsons said the director will be paid on the solicitor scale, Level 5. According to the provincial budget, that tops out at $144,321.

The director will also have an administrative assistant, and pull resources from the RCMP and RNC as needed. The investigators will be police officers, seconded from the two forces, under the watchful eye of the civilian director.

The director cannot be someone with any background in law enforcement.

Parsons said they'll be able to handle up to 25 cases per year, and the legislation allows the department to hire more civilians if necessary.

The 2018 provincial budget allocated $250,000 for the serious-incident response team, but that will increase to $500,000 annually in the following years.

From 2015 to 2018, the justice department spent about $30,000 annually on civilian oversight investigations, but those costs could vary as "many [investigations] were not invoiced at true cost and were done at the goodwill of outside agencies," according to the justice department. 

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