Niagara police board urged to add BIPOC civilian member (Thorold Today)

https://www.thoroldtoday.ca/local-news/niagara-police-board-urged-to-add-bipoc-fully-civilian-member-6512020 

Niagara police board urged to add BIPOC civilian member

Open letter urges selection committee to use opportunity to 'truly give an outside and fully civilian oversight to the NRPS'

ThoroldToday Staff

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NEWS RELEASE
NIAGARA REGION ANTI-RACISM ASSOCIATION 
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The Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association (NRARA) sent an open letter to Niagara Region Councillors on the Niagara Regional Police Service (NRPS) Board Public Representative Selection Committee on Feb. 8 asking them to give extra consideration to applicants who have never been police officers and are BIPOC. 

The selection committee consists of Councillors Chiocchio, Ip, Steele, Foster, and Sorrento. 

The principle of oversight from someone who has never been a police officer is in the 2007 Ontario Independent Police Review Act, which governs the selection of the province's Independent Police Review Director although not of the NRPS Board. 

However NRARA believes the principle should be used anyway to improve the civilian character of police oversight in Niagara. 

Saleh Waziruddin, an executive committee member of the Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association said, “Niagara can't afford to miss this opportunity to add fully civilian oversight by appointing someone to the police board who has never been a police officer. In the past appointed public representatives and even Regional Councillors on the NRPS Board have been former police officers, leaving less seats for those who are fully civilian. BIPOC people represent over 16% of the Region but are missing from the Board and have been for some time. If there aren't strong candidates who are fully civilian and also BIPOC then the Region needs to actively recruit these applicants next time because this is not right.” 

The text of the letter is below: 

Re: Open letter on public representative appointment to Niagara Regional Police Service Board 

Dear NRPS Board Public Representative Selection Committee members Councillors Chiocchio, Ip, Steele, Foster, and Sorrento, 

We urge you to give extra consideration to applicants for public representative appointment to the Niagara Regional Police Service (NRPS) Board who are fully civilian, i.e. have never been a police officer. This is in line with the principle set out in the 2007 Ontario Independent Police Review Act that the province's Independent Police Review Director must never have been a police officer. 

While the Act does not govern your selection of the public representative, we believe the principle set out in the Act will make the oversight of the NRPS more fully civilian which is desirable. 

We also urge you, within the pool of fully civilian (i.e. never have been a police officer) applicants, to give extra consideration to BIPOC, especially Indigenous and Black, applicants as these communities are not currently represented on the NRPS Board, and haven't been for some time.

These communities are more than 16% of the Region's population according to the 2021 Census. 

Only a minority, three members, of the NRPS Board are accountable to voters as elected officials. The public representative is the only other member chosen by the Region's elected officials. 

Past public representatives, and even many Regional Councillors appointed to the Board, have been former police officers. 

To truly give an outside and fully civilian oversight to the NRPS, this opportunity to have a Board member who is appointed locally but not a municipal official or employee must not be missed to appoint someone who has never been a police officer, and who is BIPOC. 

Perhaps there are not any strong applicants who have never been police officers, and who are not BIPOC. 

There may be a misperception that one needs to have been a police officer to be qualified to serve on the Board. Because of the shortfall in racial diversity among police officers, in comparison to the diversity of the community, this will also discourage BIPOC applicants. 

We believe it doesn't need to be this way and should be remedied in the future by proactive public recruitment to attract more candidates who are fully civilian and BIPOC. 

Regional Council can do better in its selection. 

Thank you,

Saleh Waziruddin Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association (executive committee member)

The Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association was founded in the summer of 2018 and campaigns on police reforms, municipal anti-racism committees, employment equity, organizes speaker series and workshops, and supports individuals under racist attacks.

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Open letter on public representative appointment to Niagara Regional Police Service Board (from Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association)

Dear NRPS Board Public Representative Selection Committee members Councillors Chiocchio, Ip, Steele, Foster, and Sorrento,

We urge you to give extra consideration to applicants for public representative appointment to the Niagara Regional Police Service (NRPS) Board who are fully civilian, i.e. have never been a police officer. This is in line with the principle set out in the 2007 Ontario Independent Police Review Act that the province's Independent Police Review Director must never have been a police officer. While the Act does not govern your selection of the public representative, we believe the principle set out in the Act will make the oversight of the NRPS more fully civilian which is desirable.

We also urge you, within the pool of fully civilian (i.e. never have been a police officer) applicants, to give extra consideration to BIPOC, especially Indigenous and Black, applicants as these communities are not currently represented on the NRPS Board, and haven't been for some time. These communities are more than 16% of the Region's population according to the 2021 Census.

Only a minority, three members, of the NRPS Board are accountable to voters as elected officials. The public representative is the only other member chosen by the Region's elected officials. Past public representatives, and even many Regional Councillors appointed to the Board, have been former police officers. To truly give an outside and fully civilian oversight to the NRPS, this opportunity to have a Board member who is appointed locally but not a municipal official or employee must not be missed to appoint someone who has never been a police officer, and who is BIPOC.

Perhaps there are not any strong applicants who have never been police officers, and who are not BIPOC. There may be a misperception that one needs to have been a police officer to be qualified to serve on the Board. Because of the shortfall in racial diversity among police officers, in comparison to the diversity of the community, this will also discourage BIPOC applicants. We believe it doesn't need to be this way and should be remedied in the future by proactive public recruitment to attract more candidates who are fully civilian and BIPOC. Regional Council can do better in its selection.

Thank you,

Saleh Waziruddin

Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association (executive committee member)

Letter to Niagara Region Public Health and Social Services Committee Members/Councillors Re: Declarations of emergency for homelessness, mental health, and opioids

https://pub-niagararegion.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=29680

Dear Councillors,

I urge that you support the declarations of emergency because although there is public support already for action on these three issues of homelessness, mental health, and opioids, declarations of emergency are a political reference and mandate that Council is united in support of taking extraordinary measures. These three issues cause many deaths and a lot of misery, and we need to go outside the standard toolbox of policies to take active and creative measures to meet the extraordinary needs. Passing declarations of emergency will be a high-visibility push adding to the momentum needed to meet these challenges. As the motion details, it's an opening for further action and that's why it's important to pass this motion.

Thank you,

Saleh Waziruddin

Interview on defunding police, police budgets, and police killing of Tyre Nichols with Karl Dockstader on The Drive CKTB 610AM

(on behalf of Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association)

https://www.iheartradio.ca/610cktb/audio/the-drive-with-karl-dockstader-saleh-waziruddin-nrara-executive-member-1.19173485?mode=Article

hard link: https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/4809bc8a-e41a-405c-93da-a8cf011df2f4/a9d6d364-a8cb-44f1-b837-aa14010af355/ac0a61d9-689d-47d0-ac3a-af9b017aaf3c/audio.mp3

Budget committee green-lights Niagara police budget increase (Niagara Independent)

https://niagaraindependent.ca/budget-committee-green-lights-niagara-police-budget-increase/ 

Budget committee green-lights Niagara police budget increase

by The Niagara Independent

January 31, 2023  |   2 min read

The 5.7 per cent bump from 2022 will allow an already-stretched service to hire and retain members, invest in mental health support, and contend with rising costs of operational necessities like fuel. Photo credit: Twitter/Bryan MacCulloch

 

Despite continued calls to “defund the police” across North America, and the recent efforts of local activist groups, Niagara Regional Police (NRP) will have an increased operating budget this upcoming fiscal year. 

At a marathon meeting last Thursday night, budget review committee members approved in principle a $177.9 operating budget for 2023, a 5.7 per cent increase from last year. 

The increased funds, according to NRP chief Bryan MacCulloch, are necessary to hire more officers and civilian specialists, invest in member wellness, and keep up with wage increases and rising fuel costs. 

“When we bring forward a budget request, we are not playing a negotiating game, we are not over-asking so we end up getting something smaller,” MacCulloch told councillors Thursday. “What we ask for is what we need to adequately and effectively police our community.”

One bone of contention at the committee meeting was whether the NRP should have to use any surplus carry-over from 2022 to offset the $177.9 million price-tag – a proposition floated by St. Catharines regional councillor Brian Heit, seconded by Laura Ip. 

Whether the NRP had a surplus last year, and how much, will be known in March. 

MacCulloch, supported by Mayor of Port Colborne and former NRP board chair Bill Steele, among other councillors, argued that any surplus funds should go toward building back the service’s contingency reserves. 

The reserves were depleted the term before last. The NRP reportedly has only $900,000 in the bank for any unforeseen financial pressures.

“You can’t subsidize operating (budgets) – operating is continuous,” said Mayor Steele. “You can always put off buying a police car, or a back-hoe if you’re in the public works sector of Niagara Region, to off-set your everyday budget. It just doesn’t make sense.”

The amendment to require any surplus be used to lower the 2023 operating budget was ultimately defeated, with the original recommendation from the NRP – a 5.7 per cent increase without surplus-related strings attached – carried. 

In a letter posted to social media and circulated to councillors prior to last Thursday’s meeting, Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association executive committee member Saleh Waziruddin called for regional councillors to ask the NRP to lower its operating budget.

According to Waziruddin, a long-time member of and former political candidate for the Communist Party of Canada, shifting welfare checks and mental health calls to a civilian service would result in a “significant reduction of the operating budget”.

“There is also a moral and equity reason for shifting these service calls away from police, not just a financial one,” said Waziruddin. “Welfare checks and mental health calls do not all require an armed response and can escalate dangerously and unnecessarily with the police, who are not the inappropriate service (sic) for these calls.”

The next budget committee is scheduled for February 9.

Niagara Regional Council is set to approve of the entire 2023 budget package at the end of February. 

Niagara group calls for separate mental-health emergency line (Thorold Today)

 (To clarify, we don't need to create a 4th service right now, EMS already exists and mental health calls (and funding! not just calls) can be shifted to them which the police chief himself said he's happy to send calls to when no danger to public safety)

https://www.thoroldtoday.ca/local-news/niagara-group-calls-for-separate-mental-health-emergency-line-6456988

Niagara police chief supports idea of a dedicated service to 'respond specifically to persons in crisis,' but until that exists, reducing police budget would be 'irresponsible'

Bernard Lansbergenabout 17 hours ago

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1 / 2 A dispatcher for the Niagara Regional Police Service. Supplied

When a Niagara resident is in crisis, there are three help lines available to them: police, fire, and emergency medical services (EMS).

The Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association wants to change that — calling for the creation of a fourth civilian-led service that would specialize in mental health and welfare checks that do not necessarily require an emergency response.

“This is one way they could save a lot of money: by moving calls that don’t need to be answered by the police to a service that is cheaper,” says committee member Saleh Waziruddin, in an interview with ThoroldToday. “There are already civilian professionals that are trained to deal with these calls, so why not just give them the resources and that way there is less on the police?"

The association envisions the service as another resource that a 9-1-1 dispatcher could transfer a call to.

“It would be the same line,” Waziruddin says. “If the civilian worker dispatch needs police, they can call police themselves. It doesn’t need to be that the first response is police.”

To implement the service, the anti-racism association wants to see money diverted from the budget of the Niagara Regional Police Service (NRPS).

Waziruddin points to Edmonton, where a similar service was implemented two years ago.

“This has already been done by other places in Canada,” he says. “There’s an example to follow. We wouldn’t be the first ones to shift money to these civilian services that are specialized in handling these kind of calls.”

According to a 2020 NRPS report, non-urgent mental health and welfare checks made up 8.3 per cent of calls in 2019. Police are often the first to respond to these calls, which can sometimes lead to tragic results.

On Sept. 4, a police officer killed a Black man in Port Colborne after the man threatened a neighbour with a knife and barricaded himself inside his apartment.

“The operation may not have been perfect, but no such undertaking ever is,” reads a report on the incident from the Special Investigations Unit. “It may be, for example, that more ought to have been done in the course of the negotiations to address the mental health issues that appeared to be at play once it was learned that the Complainant had cognitive deficits.”

Waziruddin says that incident illustrates the need for a dedicated mental health service.

“They say the person had cognitive difficulties so you obviously can’t talk to them in a way that you would with someone who didn’t have that problem,” he says. “You need specialized people who know how to talk to them in a crisis. When we have services that are actually specialized and don’t respond with a gun, then we’ll have less people unnecessarily killed.”

To convince others of their idea, the anti-racism association sent a letter to regional councillors ahead of last Thursday’s meeting about the NRPS budget.

Of all the regional councillors present at the meeting, Laura Ip was the only one to mention the letter.

While Chief of Police Bryan MacCulloch agreed there is a need for a specialized service, he said there are logistical challenges involved that need to be overcome first.

“The challenge that any police service or municipality faces is the intersectionality between mental health, criminality and drug addictions, which creates really volatile behaviours that we’re seeing,” he told councillors.

According to MacCulloch, there is often a lack of information provided in 9-1-1 calls.

“The issue is that the information sometimes is not as it appears,” he said. “The information that we may receive may not indicate that there is somebody suffering from a mental health crisis.”

So what about shifting mental health calls to the EMS?

“EMS is already seeing its own challenges with the offload waits at the hospital,” MacCulloch said. “I’m not sure they are necessarily in a position to provide that assistance given their own challenges with paramedics being delayed for significant hours at the hospital offloading patients.”

Waziruddin says MacCulloch's remarks show the need for the association’s idea. 

“That medical backlog would be fixed because we’re not just going to shift the calls but we’re also going to shift the money with the calls,” he says. “I was disappointed that councillors didn’t dig deeper into what the police chief said because he answered his own objections.”

In a written statement to ThoroldToday, Chief MacCulloch reiterated his support for the idea of a "fourth option."

“The Niagara Regional Police Service has long advocated for the creation of an enhanced model that has a fourth option to respond specifically to persons in crisis, but until that model is created and implemented, police are the only current option,” he writes. “Without a fourth option in place, it would be irresponsible to reduce the budget until a mechanism to safely respond to these calls for service has been addressed.”

When reached for comment, Thorold Regional Councillor Tim Whalen told ThoroldToday he didn’t read the letter from the anti-racism association because his email wasn’t working.

He also said he does not believe in diverting funds from the NRPS budget.

“To defund the police and that, I don’t agree with it,” he said. “We need to have a specialized committee set up. It can’t just happen overnight. It has to be developed and processed properly.”

Other regional councillors seem to agree. At the end of Thursday's meeting, councillors approved in principal the police service's $177.9-million budget.

Waziruddin is disappointed that his association’s letter seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

“We’re not being believed when BIPOC people are telling council that we need changes in the police service — we’re not being listened to,” he says. “When someone is going through a crisis you should talk them down instead of hurting them.”

Interview (on behalf of Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association) on shifting police funding to EMS with Karl Dockstader (The Drive on CKTB 610AM)

https://www.iheartradio.ca/610cktb/audio/the-drive-with-karl-dockstader-saleh-waziruddin-niagara-region-anti-racism-association-1.19157394?mode=Article

hard link: https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/4809bc8a-e41a-405c-93da-a8cf011df2f4/a9d6d364-a8cb-44f1-b837-aa14010af355/4b3c5503-b5b7-4b95-b6f9-af9701838205/audio.mp3