CBC project reveals never-before-seen details of allegations of police wrongdoing
CBC
Police and Public Trust, a CBC News Atlantic investigative unit project, scrutinizes the largely off-limits police complaint and discipline systems across the region. Journalists are using access to information laws, and in some cases court challenges, to obtain discipline records and data.
Police officers in Atlantic Canada are the subject of hundreds of complaints each year.
They come from members of the public and from internal sources within their own police departments. Allegations include neglect of duty, excessive force and racial profiling, to name a few examples.
The vast majority of the allegations against police officers are deemed unfounded or dismissed.
And in many cases, the public is allowed to know very little about how and why that happened.
That's why CBC's Atlantic investigative unit has launched a project called Police and Public Trust, which will take the public inside the opaque systems of police complaints and discipline across the region.
It comes at a time when police across North America are under scrutiny, with calls to "defund" the police growing in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd.
As police budgets continue to grow, Kevin Walby thinks police agencies should face growing accountability.
"Given the kinds of amazing or awesome powers of life and death that police have, the public deserves access to information regarding their conduct," said Walby, who teaches at the University of Winnipeg and serves as director of the Centre for Access to Information and Justice.
For years, details of police complaints in New Brunswick, including complaints filed with the New Brunswick Police Commission, have only become public if the complaint can't be resolved behind closed doors.
The public process, called arbitration, was the result of just five per cent of 449 allegations made against municipal police officers between 2012 and 2019, according to data provided by municipal police forces in 2020. The commission only handles complaints involving municipal police agencies in New Brunswick because the RCMP has a separate complaint process.
During that same timeframe, nearly one in three allegations regarding an officer's conduct was marked for "no further action" because of insufficient evidence or because it was deemed to be unfounded, the data provided by police agencies shows.
Another 22 per cent were dismissed because the allegation was deemed to be frivolous or not made in good faith.
The allegations included abuse of authority, improper use and care of firearms, and discreditable conduct. Some complaints include more than one allegation.