'Work in progress': Thunder Bay police chief asks for extra $1M to meet OIPRD recommendations

The chief of the Thunder Bay Police Service provided an update to the northwestern Ontario city's police service board Tuesday on the progress the force was making meeting the 44 recommendations laid out in the Office of the Independent Police Review Director's report.

But Sylvie Hauth noted fulfilling those obligations comes with a price tag, and stated she would be asking city council for an extra $1,082,500 in her 2019 budget.

The police review director's report, released on Dec. 12, 2018, examined systemic racism in the force, and how the service can build a better relationship with the Indigenous community in the city. 

Police understaffed for violent crime investigations 

Many of the OIPRD recommendations urged improvements to how the service investigates crimes, especially those involving Indigenous people.

"I just recently met with my senior command team and we're just starting to look at the implementation [of those recommendations] and what that means," said Hauth, adding there are "eight areas I see as priorities."

Among those priorities are the staffing, training and establishing a major crimes unit that complies with best practices to investigate homicides, sudden deaths and complex cases.

Hauth noted the current Thunder Bay police criminial investigations branch has four sergeants and 10 constables who investigated eight homicides, six attempted homicides and 151 sexual assaults in 2018. That compares to the Greater Sudbury Police Service's criminal investigations branch, which has 10 sergeants and 45 constables who investigated one homicide and 277 sexual assaults in the same year.

"We really are understaffed within that branch to meet our current needs and the amount of violent crimes that we respond to in our community."

Bring investigative training to Thunder Bay

According to Statistics Canada, Thunder Bay ranks number one in the country for homicides per capita and second for violent crimes.

Hauth's budget request included adding eight officers to the major crimes unit in 2019.

She said she also wanted to speed up training for her staff by bringing the experts to the city, noting that currently she can only send a few officers at a time to take specialized courses at the Ontario Police College, which means it can take years to reach the full complement of trained personnel.

The college is starting to run classes in communities and Hauth said she is keen to take advantage of that.

"We've already been approved for the sexual assault course, so one officer will go to the Ontario Police College, spend two weeks, come back and be certified," she said. "What I would like to do is bring the course to us, put 12 investigators in a room, train 12 all at once and that way be good to go with 12 officers trained and qualified."

'No real thought on where money' comes from

Underlying all these recommendations is the goal of building trust between police and the community, which is why it is also suggested officers go back to wearing name tags, rather than their badge numbers as an epaulette.

Hauth said the issue is "a work in progress" and the force is looking at a velcro-type name tag, which officers can wear on their uniforms.

"There's an expectation when you're on duty that you identify yourself. You're a police officer, you're not giving away your date of birth, your address or anything else. It's just your last name," she said.

Hauth requested the extra money for "an exceptional budget in an exceptional year" at city council budget deliberations Tuesday night. 

Coun. Shelby Ch'ng  said "I don't think I've ever struggled with the police budget as much as I am. And, it really brings to light that policy and documentation comes down from higher levels of government, with no real thought on where this money is going to come from." 

The request for the increase was deferred to the Jan. 30 meeting, with Mayor Bill Mauro reminding council it does not need to be approved.

Eight top priorities

The eight priorities Hauth laid out for the police services board, and the increased costs, where provided, are: 

1. An external investigator to be a part of the peer review team — $46,600
2. Eight additional officers for staffing the major crimes unit — $350,000 for five officers (earlier budget version had already requested three additional officers)
3. Mandatory investigative training — $49,500
4. Name tags — $2,500
5. Move from Niche Records Management System to Ontario Police Technology Information Co-operative (OPTIC) — $200,000
6. Adding a civilian member to the Aboriginal liaison unit
7. Implementing in-car cameras and body-worn cameras — $1,713,570 over five years plus $72,000 in the first year for infrastrucutre updates around Wi-Fi and connectivity to headquarters
8. Creation and implementation of mandatory Indigenous cultural competency and anti-racism training for all Thunder Bay police officers and employees