Edmonton Journal ePaper

Crime victims allegedly urged by police to lobby city for more money

LAUREN BOOTHBY lboothby@postmedia.com Twitter: @laurby

On-duty Edmonton police officers are allegedly telling victims of crime to lobby city council for more money.

The mayor and several city councillors told Postmedia they received multiple complaints from the public in recent months that, while reporting a crime or public safety issue, on-duty police officers urged victims to tell their councillor to increase police funding because they do not have enough resources, or to justify a lack of response, or delay.

City council is expected to debate whether or not to reinstate a funding formula for police on Friday.

Lindsay Harvey, Amarjeet Sohi's deputy chief of staff, said a Downtown business owner approached the mayor and herself this summer saying he wasn't getting the response he was hoping for from police.

“(He) said he has called the police a number of times for nuisances occurring outside of his businesses ... (and) it got to the point where every time they responded they just said, `You're going to have to call the mayor or council because we don't have enough resources to continue to come to these sorts of calls',” she said Thursday.

Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said Edmonton Police Service (EPS) is one of the best-funded police services in the country, and while he doesn't fault front line officers he doesn't approve of the alleged tactics.

“I don't think it's appropriate to tell the victims that they need to lobby city council and the mayor's office to get more resources for police,” he said. “There's a process to do so ... the police commission having conversations with city council about a lack of resources if that is the case. I think that is the process that needs to be followed.

“Why is it that we have one of the best-funded police services in Canada and police officers still feel they don't have enough support to serve Edmontonians? I don't think it's the fault of the front-line police officers, I think it's maybe they are not being properly resourced and supported, so where is that money going?”

Coun. Andrew Knack has had three such complaints recently that he considers credible.

“When they did reach out to EPS they were told to potentially lobby their councillors for increased funding to help address some concerns,” he said.

In one case, the person was apparently speaking to police about a traffic safety issue.

“The response, from what I understood, was there wasn't the opportunity to do a lot of dedicated enforcement to deal with that (traffic safety) issue, and the only way to do this is to potentially contact your councillor,” Knack said.

If this is a recurring issue Knack said that would be a problem.

“I would have a big concern about that, because that isn't the time and the place,” he said. “I would want to make sure that people, when they're serving in their role, particularly one when they're in a position of authority, are treating that in the most professional way possible.”

Coun. Michael Janz received five similar complaints recently. Coun. Anne Stevenson has heard about this issue anecdotally and encourages people to document any instances and submit them to her office or the police commission so they can compile data.

ALLEGATIONS `UNSETTLING': COMMISSION

Sohi said he spoke about this concern with Edmonton Police Commission chair John Mcdougall in a recent meeting.

In an email Thursday, Mcdougall said some commission members have heard informal complaints but no formal complaints have been filed, and allegations haven't been substantiated.

“These allegations are unsettling and we will raise this matter with the police service to make clear this type of alleged conduct is not the commission's expectation. Edmontonians need to trust that their police service will respond to calls for service without conditions,” he said Thursday in an email. “We encourage members of the public who are directly witness to, or subject of, such comments to submit a formal complaint through the commission.”

Mcdougall said the commission won't comment further in the event they need to make a decision on a formal complaint in the future.

EPS spokeswoman Cheryl Sheppard said they weren't aware of these allegations or complaints: “As an organization, EPS, along with the police commission, will have a discussion on our budget directly with city council in an open and public forum.”

Staff Sgt. Michael Elliot, head of the Edmonton Police Association, said he hasn't heard of this problem and he doesn't have the ability to direct members' behaviour.

CITY

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2022-10-07T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-10-07T07:00:00.0000000Z

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