REGULAR MEETING OF THE POLICE REFORM WORKING GROUP March 11, 2021 Meeting held electronically under Ministerial Order No. M192/2020 and the current Order of the Provincial Health Officer - Gatherings and Events NOTES PRESENT: Councillor Nadine Nakagawa - Chair, City Council Member Councillor Jaimie McEvoy - Alternate Chair, Council Member STAFF PRESENT: Denise Tambellini - Intergovernmental and Community Relations Manager Christopher Koth - Manager of Programs and Community Development Sophie Schreder - Executive Assistant to the Mayor/Recorder Called to order at 3:00 p.m. 1.0 NEW BUSINESS 1.1 Review of the Provincial Request to Contribute to Police Reform In discussion, Working Group members and staff noted the following: • Confirmed deadline for submission is April 30; • Staff reviewed and determined Provincial committee members, as follows: o Doug Routley (Chair) Dan Davies (Deputy Chair) Garry Begg Rick Glumac Trevor Halford Karin Kirkpatrick Grace Lore Adam Olsen Harwinder Sandhu Rachna Singh • Denise summarized and presented information from several presentations on the Police Act including: o UBCM o Brenda Butterworth-Carr-Director of Policing o E-Comm o BCGEU o Federation of Community Social Services of BC • Committee members commented on whether there were any synergies for New Westminster’s submission on the above presentations; and, • Analyzed how their recommendations align or do not align with how staff want to move forward in NW submissions. Actions: • Need to determine key areas to focus on; and, • The group needs to determine format of presentation; video, written or virtual. 1.2 Key Areas in the Police Act In discussion, Working Group members and staff noted the following: • Denise presented on and reviewed key areas of the Police Act available for input: o Modernizing the Police Act o Changes to the Mental Health Act o Racism in Policing • Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Committee members discussed and challenged framework provided by the province and discussed whether they would align submission with above areas or go off course; • Committee members stressed the importance of data collection and the inclusion of this in the City’s submission; • Committee members suggested that research needs to be done to understand what specific policing calls we can remove from police jurisdiction to provide other services to vulnerable populations; and, • Police Act gets changed, then what? Where’s the continuation of work, shift to better policing, police standards, etc. Doc #1785812 Police Reform Working Group Notes Page 2 March 11, 2021 Actions: • Research and review Police professional standards • Determine key areas of focus 1.3 Work Plan Discussion In discussion, Working Group members and staff noted the following: • Nadine Nakagawa, City Councillor and working group chair shared general overview of her vision for the police reform submissions: o Areas to focus on/high level advocacy aims presented as follows: To reduce reliance on police by creating non-carceral alternatives to respond to behaviours, situations, and crimes caused by poverty and desperation (homelessness, addiction, mental health emergencies) as well as crimes of power (domestic violence, sexual assault, etc) o To understand, mitigate, and reduce the ways over-policing negatively impacts the most marginalized in our community, namely people who are disabled, poor and/or homeless, living with addictions, have mental illness, are racialized – especially Black and Indigenous – and who live at the intersection of these identities • Committee members commented on the need to amplify other messaging around opioid crisis, but to keep focus on key advocacy aims to submit a tight presentation; • Committee members questioned who should be collecting data around policing? i.e: Racial interactions with Police, and what would be needed to collect this data; • Committee discussed who provides what resources/funding and who is accountable – province, federal, municipal funding and the need to determine where this submission has influence; • Questions arose about where do we want provincial level of standards to be and where do we want local level of standards to be; • Questions require police to collect (and publish) data related to police interaction with racialized and vulnerable persons; • Committee discussed having Canadian Municipal Network on Crime Prevention – audit specific community systems to come in and present on systems. This will include the resources required to ensure vulnerable populations are placed in housing and other needs are met through connected Doc #1785812 Police Reform Working Group Notes Page 3 March 11, 2021 service assets (how many supportive housing units, etc). It was determined that perhaps this is out of the scope of this working group and recommended a presentation to Council would be more appropriate; • Discussions around policing with compassion – alternate models without the use the existing infrastructure like social workers, emphasis on accessibility of services; and, • Deemphasise violence, emphasize compassion care. Actions/Goals: • Chris to gather examples from other regions that are doing this work (success and failures) to get a baseline; • Group to determine some language on the problem to build out the solutions; • Define short term and long term goals/metric; • Denise to determine other organizations/groups to come present to working group; • Denise to have a conversation with Eugene, Oregon on their program; and, • Denise/Nadine to pull information from FOI from NWPD for street checks in New Westminster. Goal: • Develop pilot program for New Westminster that integrates (mental) health support and housing alongside policing. 1.4 Meeting Schedule In discussion, Working Group members and staff noted the following: • weekly meeting schedule, on Thursdays 1:30pm – 3:00pm Action: • Sophie to schedule meetings into calendar NEXT MEETING Thursday, March 18, 2021 ADJOURNMENT The meeting ended at 4:30 pm. Doc #1785812 Police Reform Working Group Notes Page 4 March 11, 2021 .