Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer. (Doug Schweitzer on Twitter)

By David Opinko

Justice Minister vows to revamp “outdated” parts of policing in Alberta

Jun 10, 2020 | 10:32 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Alberta’s Justice Minister is looking for major reforms to the way law enforcement is conducted in the province.

Doug Schweitzer told LNN that work on police reform has been ongoing for a couple of years now, but with the death of George Floyd in the U.S. and the protests and riots that have broken out since, the need to make changes have intensified.

The Ministry of Justice has already taken a few actions that Schweitzer believes are steps in this process, including addressing the future of police funding for rural communities, the roles peace officers play, and the introduction of the RAPID Force.

Now, he is looking at making amendments to the Police Act itself.

“Police Act reviews in certain provinces have taken three-to-five years – we don’t have that kind of time. People are asking us to take action now, so we’re going to make sure we move this forward and if we have consensus around different amendments, we’ll bring them forward at the earliest opportunity.”

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There are three specific areas Schweitzer sees as being outdated – oversight, accountability, and community representation.

The issue of body cams on law enforcement officers has also come into the spotlight recently. LNN reported earlier this week that Lethbridge Police Service is looking to start a pilot project around that in late 2020 or early 2021.

At this time, he did not have any specific answers as to what the solutions to the outdated parts of policing might be or which direction the province might take on body cams, but he assured that he and his ministry are listening with open ears.

“We’ve already met with our department to start sketching out the road map for the consultations. Similarly to how we approached rural crime, we went out there, we talked to people for two-to-three months, we got a better understanding of the issues, and as we find consensus around solutions to different problems, we’ll take actions right away to get them done.”

A review of the current Police Act legislation is currently underway.

“We’ve also asked Ottawa to do the same thing because the RCMP are governed out of federal legislation, so we’ve asked the Minister of Public Safety federally to do a similar review of the RCMP’s governing legislation as well.”

While the consultations will generally involve groups like police agencies, municipalities, and First Nations, Schweitzer encouraged members of the general public to write to their local MLA’s with their ideas so they can forward that to his ministry.

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