The “Benign Neglect” of Policing is Failing First Nations Communities
At their Annual General Meeting in Toronto October 17-18, 2017 the First Nations Chiefs of Police Association (FNCPA) unanimously passed a resolution calling on the Government of Canada and its Provincial partners “to entrench First Nations Policing as an essential service,” provide adequate human resources, infrastructure, and operations and maintenance resources, and “sufficient, predictable and sustained funding that meets the unique needs of each department.”
“First Nations communities require and deserve stable, adequately
funded policing services that are comparable to those provided to other
communities in Canada,” said FNCPA President, Dwayne Zacharie. “The
current First Nations Policing Program (FNPP) is failing First Nations
communities by creating unsafe situations for officers and community
members.”
A recent independent research report, “‘Set up to fail?’ An
analysis of self-administered indigenous police services in Canada”
found that Self-Administered First Nations Police Services have been
facing a number of serious challenges including limited funds for
required equipment, low pay, high personnel turnover, some of the
highest crime rates with the lowest number of officers, inadequate
infrastructure, declining rates of Indigenous officers, and a lack of
stable and consistent funding. The report (found here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15614263.2017.1363973?journalCode=gppr20)
was released in August 2017. It concluded that that “the administration
of the FNPP over the past quarter- century is one of benign neglect;
that by doing nothing or ignoring the problem, the challenges
confronting Indigenous policing would somehow manage or resolve
themselves. This status of benign neglect is in keeping with a long
history of promising much, but delivering little to Indigenous peoples.”
The findings in this report are consistent with other studies and reports listed on Public Safety Canada’s Indigenous Policing webpage, including an earlier research study “Illustrative Case Studies of First Nations Policing Program Models” commissioned by Public Safety, prepared by the same researchers, and released in 2016. This earlier study found that Self-Administered police services have a funding model that is “inconsistent with how budgets are most appropriately set and applied” and that the First Nations Policing Program needs to be modernized to better serve the public safety needs of Indigenous communities across Canada.
“We’re asking for the same recognition, resourcing, and support as
other policing services in Canada,” said Zacharie. “First Nations
policing needs to be deemed an essential service like all other
community policing services across the country.”
The First Nations
Chiefs of Police Association represents and advocates for Self
Administered First Nations policing in Canada by advancing and expanding
innovative methods to enhance First Nations safety and wellness while
respecting and reflecting our communities’ unique cultural and
traditional values.