Greater Sudbury Police share enough information about their day-to-day operations, board chair Al Sizer told Sudbury.com, adding that there’s no benefit to sharing more.
“I think we’re covering it,” said Sizer, who also serves as a Greater Sudbury city council member in Ward 8. “Anything of any major concern certainly gets put out through our media representatives.”
Sudbury.com sought comment from all five board members in response to last week’s story, in which we outlined the fact Greater Sudbury police release far less information about their day-to-day operations than police forces in the similarly populous Barrie and Guelph jurisdictions.
This, despite Greater Sudbury’s violent crime severity index hitting a record high of 137.9 last year, which is significantly higher than Barrie’s 70.5 and Guelph’s 67.3.
To put this into context, while the Nickel City has a much higher violent crime rate than these two comparable communities, GSPS allows the public to know far less about what their officers are doing on a day-to-day basis.
Asked whether there might be benefit to sharing more information publicly, Sizer said, “No,” and that quite a bit is already made public in the chief’s monthly reports, which are tabled during board meetings and primarily summarize statistics and whatever media releases GSPS issued the previous month.
“The board certainly believes in being open and transparent with the public as much as can be,” Sizer said.
He was the only one of five board members who agreed to speak with Sudbury.com.
The board’s ‘one unified story’ approach
The Greater Sudbury Police Board strives to use a “one unified story” approach when it comes to public relations, Sizer said.
Citizen appointee Gerry Lougheed and provincial appointee Shawn Poland both declined comment for this story, while provincial appointee Krista Fortier and board member/Mayor Paul Lefebvre did not respond.
“Our approach as a board — and also considered good governance practice — is to communicate through the Chair,” Poland said. “As such, I’m comfortable continuing with that approach.”
Lougheed clarified that their decision to not respond was made as a group on Monday morning.
“We had a Zoom meeting this morning, and it was thought the best thing was that Mr. Sizer be our spokesperson,” he said on Monday afternoon, adding that he supports whatever Sizer said.
Sizer similarly told Sudbury.com on Monday, “This morning, (Sudbury.com’s email inquiry) generated conversation because it was going to all the board members.”
Despite what both Sizer and Lougheed said about a meeting being held, when Sudbury.com asked board administrator Matthew Gatien for a list of people who attended Monday morning’s unpublicized closed meeting of board members, he responded on Tuesday morning that “the Board did not end up meeting yesterday.”
The meeting described by Lougheed echoes a prior proposed closed-door meeting to “review questions” in advance of a public budget meeting in October 2023, which the board ultimately decided against.
In emailed correspondence Sudbury.com acquired through a Freedom of Information request, Chief Paul Pedersen advised against the proposed October 2023 closed meeting, suggesting it “might not meet the test for the criteria to bring the public budget in-camera.”
Sudbury.com sent an inquiry to Ministry of the Solicitor General spokespeople this week to ask whether closed-door meetings such as the one on Monday are allowed.
They did not directly answer our questions, which is a common response for Government of Ontario agencies, when they respond at all.
“Section 35 of the Police Services Act addresses the constitution of a quorum and exceptions to including the public from a meeting,” the spokesperson said in their single-sentence response which took them 24 hours to send and arrived after deadline.
The Police Services Act states that three members make quorum, and meetings “shall be open to the public” unless certain criteria are met. Media strategy might not qualify, per Pedersen’s prior interpretation.
Sizer said the Police Services Act also dictates, “It is the board chair who’s supposed to respond to media queries regarding the board.”
The Police Services Act makes no mention of spokespeople or media relations, but the GSPS Board Communications and Media Relations Policy does note that the chair is the board’s spokesperson.
There’s nothing in the policy prohibiting board members from talking to members of the media. The only restrictions are that when members express opinions that run counter to board decisions, they must “clearly identify that they are speaking as an individual and not on behalf of the board,” and that they don’t state board positions prior to votes.
As such, board members’ silence has been self-imposed beyond the scope of their written policy.
The topic of board members speaking to media also came up at a board level in response to a past story for which Sudbury.com sought comment from Lougheed, Sizer said, adding, “It didn’t seem to, myself, to be a big deal other than it should be myself as spokesperson.”
Sizer was uncertain about what story it was, but the only police board-related stories for which Sudbury.com sought comment from Lougheed in recent years included one introducing him as a board member in January 2023, and one advocating for police to reconsider not filling an equity, diversity and inclusion position the following month. In both cases, his comments were clearly identified as his own and not representative of the board as a whole.
The “one unified story” approach also appears to translate in the comments of staff and board members, with Sudbury.com hearing three variations of the same phrase: “Is it in the public interest or interesting to the public?” in recent weeks from officials.
In January, police spokesperson Kaitlyn Dunn told Sudbury.com, “There’s a difference between public interest and interesting to the public.”
On Monday, Sizer said GSPS releases information on incidents “of any significance or public safety or of public interest and not just interesting to the public.”
On Tuesday, Chief Paul Pedersen said communications is “always a balance between public interest and what the public finds interesting.”
Chief Paul Pedersen responds
Pedersen told Sudbury.com this week that he’s comfortable with his organization’s transparency.
Between media releases, posts to social media and the information released during police board meetings, he said there are a few avenues for public dissemination of information.
“Quantity does not equate to quality, nor is it the sole dictator of transparency,” he said.
“I’d much rather have meaningful media releases that have those tenants of public interest than potentially some rather mundane media releases about minor events happening in the community.”
There’s no straightforward formula to the information police make public, he added.
“This is a big city that lives like a small town, and sometimes people don't want their neighbours knowing their business,” he said.
“We have to balance it, and we try our best to balance what's in the public’s interest and what’s in the victims’ interest.”
There are always ways for police to improve communications, he added.
“As a learning organization, as an evolving organization, we’re always open to improvement and always looking for what’s new out there,” he said, adding they’re forever seeking “new ways of connecting and how to ensure that we are delivering on the service that’s expected of our community.”
Who’s on the police board?
The Greater Sudbury Police Board includes:
- Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer, chair
- Gerry Lougheed, vice chair (citizen appointee)
- Mayor Paul Lefebvre, member
- Krista Fortier, member (provincial appointee)
- Shawn Poland, member (provincial appointee)
Lougheed is president and managing director of Lougheed Funeral Homes, Fortier is a lawyer and part of the father-son-daughter team that run Fortier Law Firm, and Shawn Poland works for Cambrian College as VP external partnerships, strategic enrolment and executive director of the Cambrian Foundation.
This year, Sizer is slated to receive $1,942.20 for his role as chair, while Lougheed, Fortier and Poland are entitled to $12,647.86 each for their roles on the board. Lefebvre does not receive a pay bump for his role on the board. Last year, Lefebvre followed through on a 2022 campaign promise by dropping his salary as mayor to $143,000.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
