(file photo/MHPS)

By Tiffany Goodwein

Police Act investigations impacted by COVID-19 court delays

Dec 17, 2021 | 10:25 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB- There continues to be backlogs in Alberta’s court system due to COVID-19. Now those backlogs appear to be impacting the rate at which formal complaints against police officers are investigated and completed under the police act.

The Medicine Hat Police Service currently has 15 active police act investigations, eight of which have originated during the pandemic.

Medicine Hat Police Chief Mike Worden said police act investigations occur at the mercy of the court system. That’s because they can’t begin unless the court case of the criminal matter is complete.

Factoring in the time it takes for a case to go through the courts and the time it takes for a police act investigation to occur, Worden said that it can take up to three years before a police act investigation concludes.

But he said complaints against officers are taken very seriously, and that requires adequate time to ensure a fair and thorough investigation occurs.

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“ We have several obligations under the police act for these investigations, and there are times that they are complex, so you have to speak to a number of witnesses, a number of officers, and is not something we take lightly when we do the investigations. So when you look at the totality of the investigation there is often no rock that is not unturned,” Worden said.

Formal complaints made towards officers are dealt with through the professional standards unit. Of the 15 active police act investigations, three are criminal or statutory in nature. One case involves officer Const. Chance Franklin who was charged with sexual assault in Oct. 2020. A second case involves Const. Myles Steiger who was charged with assault involving a youth back in June 2021. Worden was unable to say much on the third criminal matter. But he did say the case is a historic complaint dating back decades that has since been forwarded to the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT). That organization investigates “serious or sensitive allegations of police misconduct.”

In recent years, there has been more scrutiny towards police officers, largely due to incidents of police brutality south of the border. But Worden said that police scrutiny in society has not reflected in the number of complaints the detachment has received. Instead, complaints have remained fairly stable year over year.

Restructuring at the MHPS

Worden has been the chief of police for almost a year. He was officially sworn in back in January following a 25- year stint as a high-ranking officer with the Calgary Police Service.

Worden said since taking the reigns as chief, restructuring has occurred that will make the police force leaner at the upper management level. The full scope of the restructuring will be released in January. But Worden said part of the restructuring includes reducing the number of inspectors from three to two.

“ We are taking our administrative services division and wrapping it into the other two areas, and of course we are going to put more work on our Staff Sergeants and push some of the decision making down the line,” Worden said.

The retirement of one of the inspectors allowed the police force to examine a leaner organizational structure. The change will be piloted for one year, and it is expected to save the police force roughly $200,000.

“Hopefully that will make us a little more efficient and a little more financially accountable. But we are concerned because of the staffing levels because of officers on various types of leaves, and of course with COVID-19 if one team were to go down with having to isolate because of the pandemic it puts us in a pretty precarious position,” he said.

Worden was also able to share that the location of police commission meetings will also change in the new year. Instead of being held virtually at the police station. They will now occur at city hall inside council chambers to allow the public to sit in while abiding by social distancing protocols. Police commission meetings happen every fourth Thursday of the month, beginning at 6 p.m.