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Abolishing police won't fix Thunder Bay's problems, says community's mayor

Most see solutions instead in education and training, and call for more social services funding from higher levels of government
Thunder Bay police hq
Leaders in Thunder Bay say defunding isn't the solution to systemic problems with policing. (File photo)

THUNDER BAY – Local leaders with key roles in setting budgets and policies for the Thunder Bay Police Service say calls to defund police don’t chart the right course to address systemic problems with policing in the city.

The call to defund police – which can mean anything from redirecting portions of police budgets toward social supports to abolishing police entirely – has gained prominence following weeks of protests against police violence and mistreatment of racialized communities.

A majority of city councillors in Minneapolis, where the police killing of George Floyd on May 25 sparked the wave of protests, recently vowed to dismantle the city’s police force and rebuild it from the ground up.

Local leaders acknowledged Thunder Bay’s police force has systemic issues of its own, documented in a series of reports in recent years. The reports found systemic racism within the force manifested in broken trust with Indigenous communities, deaths of Indigenous people being investigated less thoroughly, an under-representation of Indigenous officers and staff, and a lack of oversight from the Police Services Board, which was temporarily disbanded as a result.

Most local leaders, however, believe solutions lie in education and training, as well as investments in social services – but most say those need to come from provincial and federal, not local, governments.

Mayor Bill Mauro, who also sits on the Thunder Bay Police Services Board, rejected the idea of abolishing police out of hand as unrealistic.

“If that is where some folks want to go, just remove police completely, I’m not sure who they think they’re going to call when there’s a domestic violence incident, or a murder that needs to be investigated, or traffic accidents that need to be dealt with,” he said. “Obviously I think most people will understand we need some sort of a response.”

However, the mayor believes less radical calls to shift some spending from policing to social services could find support, even among police themselves.

“I’m trying to learn for sure what is meant when they say defund,” he said. “If the idea is you take some of the money and use it for more frontline, proactive, social service kind of work, there may be some merit in that – and I think perhaps [it’s] even something police services themselves might potentially support.”

But Mauro was firm in saying it’s the province that needs to step in with additional funding for those health-related issues, rather than the municipality.

“If there’s a gap that exists that’s the provincial or federal responsibility, that’s where it needs to stay.”

Asked by Tbnewswatch about the idea of defunding police, Thunder Bay’s city councillors were hesitant. City council approves the total budget allocation for police, while the Police Services Board decides how the budget is spent – and can appeal to the province if it believes the city is providing inadequate funding.

In recent years, council has approved steady increases to the police budget – partly to fund initiatives that respond to recommendations in reports by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) and Ontario Civilian Police Commission (OCPC).

No city councillors unequivocally supported lowering police funding. One, Coun. Rebecca Johnson, said she had long been interested in shifting some funding from police to social services. Several others said they were open to the concept, but most agreed with Mauro that major investments in social services – particularly for mental health and addictions – need to come from higher levels of government.

Police Services Board chair Georjann Morriseau said while she doesn’t agree with calls to defund police, she understood why the idea would find purchase. She sees parallels between the concerns expressed by Black Lives Matter protestors and those faced by Indigenous people.

“I can empathize with those calls, most definitely,” she said. “It comes from a place of tragedy, hurt, pain, disparity… It doesn’t necessarily surprise me to hear that.

“Defunding and banning police services isn’t where I want to focus my time and my energy. I think if anything, it’s looking at and really breaking down why that call is there – the issues around systemic racism, challenges, and reform that’s necessary.”

For Morriseau, the path to reform for Thunder Bay police is guided in particular by recommendations in reports by the OIPRD and OCPC.

The force released its first-year report responding to OIPRD recommendations in January of this year. It indicated progress on numerous recommendations, such as trialling body and vehicle cameras, the reinvestigation of homicide cases flagged as problematic in the report, additional training, and an expansion of its criminal investigations capacity.

In other areas, like expanding the Aboriginal Liaison Unit and recruiting more racialized and Indigenous officers and staff, progress has not been evident.

“It’s hard to recruit Indigenous or minorities into the police services, but that’s where we need to be more creative,” Morriseau said. “We’re having challenges recruiting in general, let alone [from a minority background].”

In some cases, Morriseau said, it’s in fact a lack of funding that holds the force back from implementing greater changes – a statement that has been echoed in the past by Police Chief Sylvie Hauth, and is cited in the force's one-year OIPRD report.


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Ian Kaufman

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