Bylaw needs clear priorities: report
Review finds division lacks clear focus, should drop parking meter enforcement
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, October 22, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A city-commissioned report on the operations of the bylaw enforcement office found a lack of clear direction and oversight for the force, insufficient training for some officers and insufficient legal authority to address liquor abuse, but according to the city's public safety director, several of these problems are already being addressed.
Rob Taylor, a consultant with Perivale + Taylor, speaks to Community Services Committee on Monday afternoon about the operational review of the Municipal Enforcement Division. - Shane Magee/NNSL photo |
It also said parking meter enforcement shouldn't be part of the division's mandate as it creates a perception that the force is focused on revenue generation instead of public safety.
"I think we have a few basic but important things that can turn the division around and make it more accountable to the people," said Coun. Rebecca Alty as council discussed the findings of the report at Monday's Municipal Services Committee meeting.
"I want to make sure the report doesn't just gather dust," said at the meeting about the 50-page report by Vancouver-based Perivale + Taylor.
Alty said the first thing the city should do is set a strategic priority for the division that has a staff of 12, including seven street-level officers.
The consultants wrote that "overriding all other considerations is the need for overall strategic direction and accountability."
Coun. Dan Wong says the report presents an opportunity.
"I think right here, we have the opportunity for real change in the MED," said Wong. "Right now we need to be bold."
He said the recommendations in the strategic plan are "half measures" and that council should do more to address the problems with the division.
Council is examining a plan contained within the report to implement some of the recommendations for fixing issues the consultants found, and public safety director Dennis Marchiori said several problems with the division are were being addressed prior to the release of the report.
One problem the report found is officers don't have easy access to the policies and procedures, which were described as fragmented and inconsistent, that dictate how officers are supposed to perform.
Marchiori said the aim is to have at least some of those documents in a binder available to each officer by early next year.
He said a cost/benefit analysis needs to be carried out before deciding on implementing other aspects of the report.
The consultants wrote there is a tension between the bylaw officers' mandated duties - regarding liquor consumption and abuse - and their legal authority.
The officers do not have legal authority to seize liquor or apprehend intoxicated people who aren't able to take care of themselves.
The city has requested the Liquor Act be amended to give bylaw officers more authority to address liquor abuse issues.
While the priorities are clearly articulated for traffic and parking enforcement, other areas are ill-defined, the report states.
The division is perceived, by those interviewed for the report - including bylaw officers, city councillors and RCMP - to have too great a focus on revenue generation, according to the report.
"Consequently, there is a perceived lack of emphasis upon the proactive strategies which support the higher ideal of public safety," it says.
Marchiori said the city has reached out to the GNWT seeking a change to the Summary Conviction Procedures Act to streamline the ticketing process. The change would allow people to be served notice with just a letter, rather than a ticket.
"It would save us a lot of man-hours," Marchiori said, adding it would allow them to redirect staff to other tasks.
Over the last few years, the division has been accused of using excessive force. Coun. Niels Konge said he constantly hears complaints about the organization.
The report did not examine those incidents or the public perceptions of the division.
The report is critical of the training requirements for level-one officers, saying "job descriptions are not consistent with the authority of their office or the training and certification records."
It found level-one officers, responsible for downtown foot patrols and security at the public library, don't have the equipment or prerequisite training the job entails.
According to the report, the courses the city provides to officers "suggests that defensive tactics training are focused on physical skills without accompanying de-escalation skills and techniques."
A similar operational review of the division took place in 1995. Coun. Adrian Bell said several of the recommendations from that report are echoed in the latest report.
He was frustrated that 20 years after that initial report, council and the division weren't further ahead on their own, he said.
There needs to be accountability to council by the division, said Bell.
He and other councillors suggested one way to do that would be to have monthly reports to the committee like the RCMP already do about monthly crime stats.
"Our ability to review how the department is doing is so far behind," Bell said.
Consultant Robert Taylor suggested at the meeting the city invest in a computer-aided dispatch system to better track the calls and staffing needs of its bylaw officers.
That would generate a monthly report similar to what the RCMP now present.
Senior administrative officer Dennis Kefalas said there are already computer systems that could fulfill that function without the need to buy software.
