This post comprises the material to the Committee-of-the-Whole (COW), 19 Jan. 2015, and additions with knock-your-socks-off revelations guaranteed following it.
Post:
Fund-a-mental Nelson
31 Dec. 2014
is a lead-in.
2015 NPD Budget/$311.000 Increase
Police Chief Holland says: Nelson has a relatively low crime-rate - referring to the 2013 National Crime Severity Index. But - also according to him - this is not indicative of the Nelson Police Department's (NPD) actual work. Because there is an overwhelming case-load of mental illness, drugs and street-disorder.
In other words: the majority of the NPD's work does not register as crimes. Just a nuisance, really! So - no matter how much of a nuisance - the NDP is just busy. As it should be!
While mental illness, drugs and street-disorder seem to be the public fulcrum for the budget-increase; it's all vague and anecdotal. With Holland at best claiming in 2014: Nelson police officers respond to approximately 1.000 mental illness calls per year.
Several significant problems in this statement are:
1.
Approximately 1.000 means: either there are no exact records - which year, how many? - or the NPD does not find it necessary to tell us. If we accept 1.000 in 2013 - about 3 per day every day - they seem to be dealt with rarely witnessed by the general public and do not show-up in the Nelson Star's routinely bundled NPD-activities. An occasional case yes - daily multiples no!
2.
Mental illness calls - aside from the profiling-issue - is a blanket classification of people by the NPD: consistently making judgements it is unqualified to make.
So - how many drug-related calls are there? How many street-disorder calls? Seeing he does not mention calls about those: are mental-illness/drug/street-disorder-issues basically the same? As many surely are: 1.000 responses per year represent a low case-load in the majority of the NPD's work.
3.
Assuming that by calls he means phone-calls - after all, how else would the generally invisible police-presence know of these unruly, drugged mentally-ill: who is making these calls 3 times per day every day, and what are they based on? Who qualifies these public-nuisances as mentally-ill: callers or NPD?
While the to Council declared purpose of hiring 2 additional constables plus 1 administrative coordinator actually is not emphasis on this crisis but spreading case-loads to enable the NPD to get ahead of crime by making all proactive and accountable. This according to the 2015 Provisional Budget! Get ahead of what crime we don't have? While being proactive and accountable is expected in any job - not so in the NPD! Even though Accountability has been listed for ages by the NPB as a core Value of the NPD!
What's really going on here?
Although the NPD hasn't added any officers in 20 years - at least one addition comes to mind: Constable Lisa Schmidtke, hired in March 2013.
Supposedly the long-suffering NPD has been functioning with between 14 and 16 officers since 2011 - this fluctuation partly due to injuries. While not telling how many are in or out or what right now. Raising the question: How many are currently budgeted for - while not physically on the job? A need for hiring additional personnel should not be based on the who-knows-how-long absence of some because of whatever union-approved issues.
Currently wages and benefits of police-officers represent 86 cents of every budget-dollar. It is arrogant to attempt saddling the taxpayer with this massive budget-increase to convenience an already extremely well-provided-for police-force, kept busy with generally low-voltage case-loads
The NPD habitually compares its poor-me-I-work-so-hard premises to those of other cities. Budgets soon to be an issue - with all due respect I urge Mayor Kozak - NPB Chair - and Council to increase the NPD's budget objectively, based on actual explicitly documented need in Nelson only.
Across-the-board training in first-responder conflict-resolution is more labor/time and cost-effective than hiring more personnel to spread the work-load.
End of presentation
Although community-involvement is commendable - actual policing must have priority over all else. Unless they're not busy! And not on overtime! The NPD is not a taxi-service for little old ladies' mall-itch!
Clearly - the more "community" stuff they do on the clock - the less real police-work seems to need doing.
Following are t h e reasons given in the 2015 Provisional Budget for increasing the force to the tune of $311.000:
WHAT WOULD THAT INCREASE ALLOW US TO DO?
1.
Be information-led as opposed to reactive
2.
Be intelligence-led and integrated in our operational deployment
3.
Focus on our main (chronic) "frequent-flyer" offenders
4.
Focus on the key-drivers of a problem/issue/crime
5.
Identify new and leverage existing partnerships to achieve reduction in an integrated manner
6.
We would be more able to "get ahead of crime" and be proactive against criminal events and trends
7.
We will assign our personnel to performance-based standards - this makes them accountable and focus us on "outcomes" - not "inputs"
If all this sounds iffily generic - here is why:
Source: Dr. Irwin Cohen - Dr. Daryl Plecas
"The Seven Essential Principles of Police-Based Crime-Reduction" - 2014.
> Who are these guys???
Answer: They're both connected to the University of the Fraser Valley, where they publish a book in 7 parts/name above, Fall 2014 - around the same time the NPD-budget is put together - the book not Nelson-specific.
Both teach/taught there, while Darryl Plecas (double-r in Darryl, NPB!) is also Liberal member of the BC Legislature for Abbotsford South.
> What is their direct connection with the Nelson-beat???
Answer: No connection.
Plecas is an interesting fellow - having made a dubious name for himself with his tough stance against decriminalization of marijuana.
Example:
Killer Weed: Marijuana Grow Ops, Media and Justice
Dr. Susan Boyd and Dr. Connie Carter
http://www.notkillerweed.com/
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014. 304 pages)
Reviewed by - Chuck Reasons J.D, Ph.D.
Visiting Professor, Criminology
Kwanten Polytechnic University, May 2014
Excerpts:
The authors note that a major supporter of getting tough on grow-ops is Dr. Darryl Plecas, professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Fraser Valley who authored/co-authored several of the RCMP reports that have been used to justify harsher penalties and a get-tough approach toward marijuana grow-ops. In fact, he was RCMP University Chair in Crime Reduction at Fraser Valley. Apart from the potential appearance of lack of independence/objectivity, Boyd and Carter note that these studies are not published and peer-reviewed as is normal in academic research. Nonetheless, they are widely cited by law enforcement and others promoting a get-tough approach as authoritative/valid evidence of the harms of grow-ops. In fact Plecas himself was often cited in newspapers, reaffirming the findings. But the authors of this book show that certain reports lack scientific rigor and, in fact, mislead the reader due, in part, to faulty methods of research. However, they were widely cited and acknowledged as the real facts about marijuana grow-ops.
In an interesting review of international literature on marijuana grow-ops, the authors contrast scholarly research (elsewhere) with the slanted view of the RCMP research.
I am not advocating for grow-ops - this is only to provide an introduction of Plecas as the direct source of our NPB's sudden 7 commandments from the mount. Backbone of the budget proposal. Justification for the increase, the projected purpose/gain, reason: lifted almost verbatim - without Nelson-context!
The rest of the budget: vagueness and statistical fillers - smoke and mirrors.
The NPD/NPB - by the Police Act - can still make as many changes as they wish. Before March 1. Within little more than 1 month!
BUT!
How could they now justify another approach to the same $311.000?
Or else rewrite the whole thing with a totally different scenario for totally different goals - without the 311K?
Major loss of trust, confidence - face - no matter which way they turn-or-not!
This clearly is the time to support our new Council with thoughtful input.
Go to:
www.nelson.ca
Home-Page - Contact Mayor & Council
Email All (single message) - Mayor & Council
Home-Page - Police Department
Police Staff Directory
Email - Wayne Holland, Police Chief
May the leaner Force be with you!
Images:
Jim Baldwin
Jason Bullard
Kevin Curtis
Perre et Gilles
No comments:
Post a Comment