(Prince Albert Police Service/Facebook)

By Derek Craddock

PRINCE ALBERT POLICE

Addressing accountability and racism a must for P.A. Police: justice studies professor

May 24, 2023 | 1:09 PM

A report citing neglect of duty, the retirement of the chief and allegations of harassment have plagued the Prince Albert Police Service in the past week.

But as one Saskatchewan professor points out, these issues are not exclusive to Prince Albert.

James Gacek is with the justice studies department at the University of Regina and spoke to paNOW to share his thoughts on the current challenges for the force. He said he’s been paying attention to the internal struggles they’re dealing with and the long-standing challenges of interacting with community members, in particular Indigenous people.

Last week, the province released a report on the police response to a home in Prince Albert in February 2022. On that day, a 13-month-old infant, Tanner Brass, was found deceased. His father Kaij Brass was charged with second-degree murder in the death.

The report stated responding officers neglected their duty and should have checked on the child when they originally responded to the home for calls of a domestic dispute. They returned later that morning after reports of the infant’s death.

International Spotlight

P.A.'s Howe one of 4 Sask. born players named to Canada's World Junior roster

7h ago

National

Ottawa to remove 30% investment cap for Canadian pension funds

11h ago

Budget woes

Golf and curling centre faces grim season without financial boost

14h ago

Not long after the report was released, Chief of Police Jonathan Bergen announced his retirement from the service, citing instances of harassment.

When talking about the recent events, Gacek noted this is part of a larger discussion on accountability and fighting issues like systemic racism.

“We talk about potential racism and the duty of neglect of care that officers are engaging with as the police and so looking especially at the report suggesting that the officers were negligent in their duties, speaks to larger concerns we might be seeing within the PAPS,” he said.

Prince Albert Police have been under fire by organizations like the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) for its handling of the Tanner Brass incident. Last week, the FSIN reiterated its calls for greater accountability and claimed Tanner’s death was a result of racism by the PAPS.

Gacek noted when it comes to fighting racism and the need for accountability, it’s not just Prince Albert that’s being affected.

“There are other police services across Canada that are having these types of nuanced, comprehensive conversations about systemic racism, about officer accountability and about changes institutionally that may be able to serve their communities better,” he said. “I would hope that this is a significant moment for the Prince Albert Police Service to really look inward to see how their culture or how their institution is viewed in terms of policing and in terms of the communities that they are tasked with policing.”

Addressing systemic racism has been a major talking point with the RCMP and municipal police forces across the country. In June 2022, then Chief of Toronto Police James Ramer apologized to the city’s Black community as he released a report with previously unseen race-based police data.

The data showed Black people in the city faced a disproportionate amount of police enforcement and use of force in 2020 and were more likely to have an officer point a gun at them – whether perceived as armed or unarmed – than white people in the same situation.

In July 2022, Sgt. Shawn Harrison, a Thunder Bay police officer was found guilty of neglect of duty of investigating an Indigenous man’s death with bias. Stacey DeBungee, an Indigenous man was found deceased in October 2015. Harrison was demoted following the verdict.

Having talked about accountability and addressing racism and harassment, Gacek touched briefly on whether these issues will deter people from pursuing a career in policing.

“I think there may be some hesitancy to not only have community members want to become police officers but may even want to report to police officers if there are larger harmful situations that arise,” he said. “We already see this type of concern with Indigenous communities about if officers will treat them accordingly.”

He added at the end of the day, the responsibility still falls on the chief of police in Prince Albert.

“I think we still have to reconcile with the systemic accountability that is needed for the victims because at the end of the day, there was a tragic incident where an infant had passed away and we need to see more growth, more progress in talking about accountability within policing.”

Chief Jonathan Bergen’s retirement comes into effect on May 31. A senior officer with the Saskatoon Police Service will come on board on an interim basis until a full-time chief is chosen.

-With files from The Canadian Press