Ontario's new civilian oversight group investigating complaints filed against Windsor Police Service

Ontario's new Inspector General of Policing is investigating two complaints filed against the Windsor Police Service.

The first has to do with how the police dealt with a person trying to report harassment and the second centres on how the service dispatches police officers.

Both complaints were submitted to the province's new Inspectorate of Policing, which launched last April as part of the new Community Safety and Policing Act. 

The investigations were made public as part of the agenda for Windsor's monthly meeting of its police services board. 

No board members asked questions about the investigations during the public meetings.

The Windsor police service would not comment on the investigations when approached by CBC News after the board's meeting on Thursday. 

"I want to say that I applaud the Windsor police board for being transparent about the fact that a complaint has been received," said Inspector General Ryan Teschner. 

He said that the oversight body does not investigate every complaint it receives. 

Police notified of 2 complaints in 2 months

There are two complaints that were made to the Inspectorate of Policing that Windsor police have been told warrant an investigation:

• The first investigation, which Windsor police were notified about on Nov. 25, 2024, is "in relation to the adequacy and effectiveness of the Windsor Police Service regarding police response to requests for police services from an individual attempting to report a harassment."
• The second investigation, which Windsor police were notified about on Dec.10, 2024 "concerns the adequacy and effectiveness of the Windsor Police Service in dispatching members of a police service."

Teschner said that he could not provide additional details about the complaints because it is an ongoing investigation.

He said that the outcomes of the investigations will be posted on the Inspectorate of Policing's website once completed. 

Each investigation requires a different amount of resources, said Teschner, which makes it difficult to gauge how long these investigations will take. 

How the three oversight bodies intersect

There are three different groups that oversee police in the province of Ontario:

• The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is a service that investigates whenever a police officer is involved in an altercation that results in a serious injury, death, allegation of sexual assault or when an officer shoots their gun. 
• The Law Enforcement Complaints Agency (LECA) — which was previously the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) — deals with complaints about police misconduct in Ontario.
• The Inspectorate of Policing deals with the adequacy and effectiveness of police services, including police services boards.

"I view them as three legs of the same stool, but each with their own defined mandate," said Teschner.

People can file complaints online if they believe an issue falls under an organization's jurisdiction.

Teschner said the outcomes posted online do not include details that could identify the person who complained, but did warn there might be pieces of information that need to be shared with a police service, in order to do a thorough investigation. 

"We will make sure that we take steps to protect identifying information of individual," said Teschner.

Once an investigation is complete, Teschner can enforce directives to police services or police boards to make sure things improve.