WHAT'S NEXT?
Don't Shoot
Until the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) concludes its investigations, there's no room for assumptions or blame. What are the next steps after a year with ten total police-involved shootings?
Back in December 2016, Calgary Police Chief Roger Chaffin responded to the high number of shootings by promising a review of how CPS uses force. But as of February 2017 no steps have been made to make progress on the promise. For King, that’s concerning.
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“I don’t mean to be blowing my own horn, but it’s guys like me who get on the media and say ‘CPS you promised a review. You did it three months ago. You said that months ago and you’ve taken no steps, where are you now on it?’ So I think the more you just track, report and hold CPS to account that’s the way we progress and things get better.”
The Calgary Journal reached out to Les Kaminski, Vice-President of the Calgary Police Association for comment. Although Kaminski initially agreed to an email interview, he declined when he received questions.
"We must give people who have passed away and have been shot and killed by police – and we have to give the families of those people – the courtesy of not characterizing what they were going through before we actually know what they were going through...That will be ASIRT's job down the road."
-Doug King
King says we need to track, report and hold CPS to account. Video produced by Josie Lukey and Nina Grossman.
According to Stanton, CPS currently has no plans to adjust training protocol following last year's high number of police-involved shootings. Video produced by Josie Lukey and Nina Grossman.
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Jessica lynn Patterson
UPDATE: On May 17, 2017 CPS announced its initiating an independent review of its policies, procedures, practices, training, equipment and use of lethal force. The review, to be conducted by retired Superior Court Justice Neil Wittmann, is not aiming to assign individual fault to last year’s incidents but to tackle systemic issues that lead to lethal use of force.
Wittman has 50 years of legal experience, including legal practice in criminal and civil law and 18 years as a Superior Court Justice. He’ll be consulting with stakeholders, experts and CPS members during his review.