After pressure from the George Floyd murder under the knee of a police officer in the US, spilling over to Edmonton, drawing over 15,000 people to the Legislature rally, and provoking hearings at Edmonton City Hall to address policing of minorities, the Edmonton Police Service responded.
On September 21, the Edmonton Police Chief (EPS) announced a strategy to engage Black, Indigenous, and underserved communities through community engagement sessions across Edmonton to create safe spaces for discussions, as well as, work with communities to implement changes.
After the launch of the EPS Commitment Plan, the Chief said the EPS is now focus on results as they organize community led engagement sessions across Edmonton. After a series of community-led sessions, we wanted to know what the EPS is hearing from the community and what they hope to do with the information.
Before going to the interview with the Edmonton Police Chief, some flashes of hope…
Edmonton Police Service (EPS) started matching words with action as the recent graduating class of 30 officers comprises 5 women, 3 indigenous, the highest ever, 7 officers born out of Canada, collectively speaking 9 languages.
EPS commitment to listen is on the way to build, repair, and strengthen relationships, to ensure and create the space that enables them to hear directly from multicultural communities on their experiences with policing, and ideas moving forward through community led sessions, throughout the city.
The next session is on November 24th and have been moved online due to COVID-19 restrictions. December 8th session is at the Orange Hub and might also be moved online. EPS says sessions may move online to ZOOM pending COVID-19 safety precautions.
To register for a session, please go to www.epsinput.ca
On November 18, Diversity connected with the Edmonton Police Chief, Dale McFee, at their new TD Tower Office, to get updates on these sessions so far.
Chief Dale McFee said in the interview with Diversity that the sessions are going on well. He said he’s hearing lots of stuffs, some of which they will implement right away. He added that he’s also connecting with the participants as he’s been able to attend some of the sessions and plans to attend some upcoming ones.
In his own words, Chief McFee shared, “…We’re hearing lots of different things and I think we’re well on our way to implementing some of the things such as….spending time with our social services on what we can do or improve…trauma…bias awareness…peer intervention training…data…I think we got a great opportunity to deliver those I’ve just mentioned…”
The Chief praised his recruitment team for hiring a diverse group of officers in the recent and current EPS classes.
Another big news, the Chief also mentioned that they have allocated $20 millions of their budget to help divert people from the justice system working with their partners.
Chief MacFee also highlighted that they seldom hear of the positive stories of EPS members doing good things in the community.
This listening campaign is planned for 18 months to talk to as many people as possible, taking people to the right systems where they belong, as well as, putting the bad guys in the justice system designed for them.
“…we need to do the right thing and as many as we can quickly…,” the EPS Chief concluded.
