Police union happy with commissioner appointment
Last Updated: Wednesday, November 4, 2009 | 7:37 AM AT
CBC News
A police union on P.E.I. is endorsing the appointment of a new police commissioner, an idea it complained bitterly about three years ago.
'[There were] significant problems with respect to process that officers were being subjected to.'— Bill McKinnon, CUPE
CUPE, which represents police in Summerside and Kensington and security on the UPEI campus, said the government's plans for the commissioner have changed significantly since 2006.
"The legislation that we faced back in 2006 had absolutely no consultation with police officers or their representatives," CUPE representative Bill McKinnon told CBC News Tuesday.
"It contained significant problems with respect to process that officers were being subjected to, their rights under that process."
The police commission is designed to be an independent office to investigate complaints against the police. Three years ago, police officers represented by CUPE were demanding the head of then attorney general Mildred Dover.
McKinnon said one of the biggest problems with Dover's idea was how much power the commissioner would have over whether complaints would go forward.
"The police commissioner in 2006 had full access to the file, the investigative file, and actually looked at the file to make a determination of whether or not there would be a hearing, that that commissioner would sit in judgment on," he said.
Now the commissioner won't have access to complaint files so that he or she can act objectively if a hearing is held.
The appointment Tuesday of retired chief justice Gerard Mitchell as the new commissioner was something that might not have happened under the earlier plan for the commission. Dover wanted to be able to appoint anyone. Now the commissioner has to be either a judge or have at least 10 years of experience as a lawyer.
