The provincial government has announced an amendment to the police act that will allow more public oversight when investigating deaths or serious injuries that occur in police custody.
The Police Amendment Act 2020, tabled in the Legislature today, introduces a number of changes to the Investigation Observer process to improve transparency and increase the involvement of civilian members.
Under the currency legislation, Investigation Observers are appointed by the Deputy Minister of Justice in a situation where a serious injury or death has occurred in police custody or as a result of a police officer’s actions.
These investigators are always members of a provincial police service or RCMP detachment, or are retired police officers. Investigations are also kept private, sent directly to the Ministry of Justice.
The new legislation would instead place the responsibility on the Public Complaints Commission to conduct investigations into these incidents, and require the summaries of investigative reports to be made public. It would also allow the PCC to appoint individuals who are not of a law enforcement background to be investigators.
Further changes under the new legislation include:
- allowing the PCC to investigate cases of sexual assaults and off-duty incidents involving police officers;
- requiring the appointment of a second investigation observer of First Nations or Métis ancestry in incidents involving individuals of First Nations or Métis ancestry;
- creating a process to address complaints against specific classes of constables, such as conservations officers or highway traffic officers;
- requiring police to ask another police organization to investigate serious injuries, deaths, or sexual assaults that occur in police custody or due to actions by an officer;
- and updating the Lieutenant Governor in Council’s authority to make regulations respecting special constables.
It would also allow police officers and civilian staff to submit internal workplace harassment and sexual harassment complaints to the PCC, who would then investigate them as a neutral third party.
“This expansion to the jurisdiction and responsibility of the Public Complaints Commission represents the most significant changes we have made to independent police oversight in this province since the commission was first established in 2006,” said Corrections and Policing Minister Christine Tell, in a press release.
“As a government, we will continue to work with our partners in policing and the larger community to ensure that police oversight in Saskatchewan is transparent and accountable to the public.”
To support these changes, the PCC has been allocated $350,000 in the provincial budget, which was released yesterday. The funding would be used to hire more staff in anticipation of the increased workload and additional responsibilities that would follow the passing of this bill.
Saskatchewan is one of the last provinces to develop an independent civilian oversight body for investigations into police activity, but the inclusion of an internal harassment complaint process in the proposed bill is the first in Canada.
