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Preamble:
WHEREAS municipalities throughout Alberta employ community peace officers (CPOs) under the Peace Officer Act and its regulations; and
WHEREAS municipalities are responsible for ensuring the safety of CPOs in the performance of their duties; and
WHEREAS the Alberta Community Peace Officer: Law Enforcement Duty Risk Assessment & Mitigation Report (the Report), commissioned by the Alberta Association of Community Peace Officers, identified increased dangers to CPOs as a result of many shortcomings related to the protective tools, measures, training, and resources provided to CPOs in Alberta; and
WHEREAS CPOs employed by municipalities experience similar workplace risks and dangers as peace officers employed by the Government of Alberta; and
WHEREAS a large disparity exists between the protective tools and measures available to municipally-employed CPOs versus provincially-employed peace officers; and
WHEREAS the Alberta Public Safety and Emergency Services (PSES) has a responsibility to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all peace officers in Alberta; and
WHEREAS PSES can effect legislative change and increase the protective tools and measures available to municipally employed CPOs;
Operative Clause:
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Rural Municipalities of Alberta ( RMA) advocate for the Government of Alberta (GOA) to implement changes that address the concerns identified in Alberta Community Peace Officer: Law Enforcement Duty Risk Assessment & Mitigation Report (the Report) relating to the legislative, procedural and practical discrepancies between the protective tools and measures afforded to municipally-employed community peace officers (CPOs) versus provincially-employed peace officers;
FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that RMA advocate for the GOA to amend the Peace Officer Act, its regulations, and the Peace Officer Manual to provide municipally-employed CPOs with better protective tools and measures including, where warranted, conducted energy weapons or sidearms, based on the risks and hazards associated with their duties;
FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that the RMA advocate for the GOA to implement and mandate a standardized incident reporting system to document incidents of workplace violence and risk-exposure faced by CPOs across Alberta, including “near miss” incidents, as defined in the Report; and
FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that the RMA form a committee to review the Report and advance and advocate for action relating to other safety considerations affecting CPOs as highlighted in the Report.
Member Background:
CPOs serve municipalities by enforcing the law in a wide array of situations. As a result, CPOs are exposed to considerable risks that they must contend with in their day-to-day activities. Because of these risks, the Alberta Association of Community Peace Officers recently commissioned a report titled Alberta Community Peace Officer: Law Enforcement Duty Risk Assessment & Mitigation Report (the Report).
The Report includes a hazard risk assessment of CPOs’ duties and analyzes the potential risk of harm faced by CPOs in the performance of their duties . To do so, the Report gathered and assessed quantitative, qualitative, and experiential data from CPOs in Alberta. This included analyzing the different tasks and duties they performed, the tools and training provided to them, the history of risk and weapon exposure, and actual harm experienced. By reviewing this data, the Report clearly sets out the risks experienced by CPOs and provides a range of risk mitigation strategies.
The Report includes many notable findings which reveal the extent of the risks faced by CPOs in the course of their duties. For example, the Report notes that CPOs often have greater daily contact with the citizens of their communities than the police of their jurisdiction. Encounters can range from typical and friendly to threatening and dangerous, and CPOs face a greater exposure to risk from these interactions.
Furthermore, many CPOs work in remote rural communities with a lack of close or effective support. Because of this, any risks a CPO faces are enhanced by the reality that help is often untimely or non-existent. Additionally, CPOs, whether they are located in urban or rural communities, encounter complex risks as they often interact with individuals suffering from mental illness, addictions, social disorder, or other conditions that can cause unpredictable and dangerous responses during interactions with a CPO.
The Report further notes that the risk exposure faced by CPOs can have multi-faceted consequences on officers. These include various forms of physical and psychological health effects, impairments, and stressors and in extreme cases, death. Importantly, repeated risk exposure is a factor driving CPO attrition from the workforce.
As a result of the findings of the Report and the harmful impacts that CPOs experience, the Report recommends many different measures that could be implemented to better protect CPOs. These include, but are not limited to:
While all these measures have the potential to be effective in reducing CPOs’ risk exposure, their implementation should be context and situation dependent.
In addition to the increased safety measures, the Report also recommends that the disengagement policies within the Peace Officer Manual be amended as adhering to their current iteration may cause, rather than prevent, harm to CPOs.
To implement the changes recommended and reduce the risk-exposure faced by CPOs, amendments should be made to the Peace Officer Regulation, the Peace Officer (Ministerial) Regulation, and the Peace Officer Manual. Currently, the two regulations restrict the personal protective equipment, general equipment, and weapons a CPO can carry and use. Especially notable in this regard is that the provisions restrict the equipment and weapons available to municipally employed CPOs more than they restrict those available to provincially employed peace officers. It is this differential treatment which, in part, causes the differential risk exposure highlighted by the Report.
The Peace Officer Manual must also be amended to help implement the recommendations included in the Report. Like the regulations, this manual also restricts the equipment and weapons available to municipally employed CPOs more than it does provincially-employed peace officers. Furthermore, as mentioned above, the Peace Officer Manual also prescribes certain disengagement policies that may actually hinder the safety and wellbeing of a CPO in some situations.
RMA Background:
14-24F: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Coverage for Community Peace Officers Under the Workers’ Compensation Act
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) advocate for the Government of Alberta (GOA) to, by regulation, add all peace officers appointed under the Peace Officer Act as an “other class of worker” referred to in section 24.2(2) of the Workers’ Compensation Act until such time as the Act can be amended;
FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that the RMA advocate for the GOA to amend the definition of “Peace Officer” under the Workers’ Compensation Act, Part 4, section 24.2(1)(f) to include all peace officers appointed under section 7 of the Peace Officer Act.
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