ASIRT on the rocks: Faced with an 'unmanageable' workload, Alberta's police watchdog is shedding staff and falling further behind on files
This past February, the head of Alberta’s police watchdog went before the Edmonton Police Commission to sound an alarm.
© Provided by Edmonton Journal
An ASIRT investigator checks out the scene of a 2019 shooting involving Edmonton police near 100 Street and 105A Avenue. The head of the agency says ASIRT is struggling under an ever-increasing file count, coupled with funding and staffing issues.
ASIRT, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, was at a “ critical breaking point ,” executive director Sue Hughson told commissioners during their monthly meeting. The agency’s already considerable backlog of cases was growing. Provincial funding shortfalls and staff vacancies were driving the roughly two-dozen investigators on her team to the brink, working “back-to-back-to-back” on police misconduct files across the province.
“When we’re calling at three o’clock in the morning to send them to Grande Prairie when they just got home the night before from another location … that becomes very taxing and it becomes very dangerous,” she said.
Nine months later, critics say ASIRT has passed the breaking point. More than a year after the murder of George Floyd shook public confidence in North American policing, ASIRT is still closing files from 2018 . Longtime staff are leaving. And even when an ASIRT investigation concludes a police officer ought to be charged, prosecutors oftentimes decline to take the file.
“There needs to be something done, and very quickly,” said Heather Steinke-Attia, whose client, Pacey Dumas is suing an Edmonton Police Service officer under ASIRT investigation for allegedly kicking him in the head. “Otherwise, this whole oversight body is just a facade. It’s just paying lip service to the idea that there (is) this independent body that’s investigating (police).”
‘Not a priority’
ASIRT is staffed by current and former law enforcement officers who investigate cases where police kill or seriously injure someone, as well as “serious or sensitive” allegations of misconduct.
Since its founding in 2008 , ASIRT has laid criminal charges against 44 officers for everything from assault to sexual assault to fraud to criminal negligence causing death.
Over the years, ASIRT’s file load has increased steadily. Before Hughson took over in 2014, ASIRT was assigned an average of 32 cases a year. It now averages 72.
Backlogs have long been a problem, but the Dumas case brought the issue to the fore.
Dumas, a 19-year-old Indigenous man from northern Alberta, claims EPS Const. Ben Todd kicked him in the head during an arrest last December, necessitating surgery to remove a section of his skull. As of early November, Dumas was still missing a piece of skull, and Todd was still on the job, albeit under investigation. In response to the delay, Hughson said ASIRT was still handling files from 2018 and the backlog wasn’t going anywhere without additional staff and funding.
On the staff front, ASIRT has seen a number of recent departures, most notably assistant executive director Greg Gudelot , who left to head-up Saskatchewan’s police watchdog. In an email, Hughson referred to a “long line of retirements and resignations” in the past year, adding the agency was “grossly under-resourced and … struggling with an unmanageable workload.”
As for funding, the Alberta government cut more than three per cent from ASIRT’s budget since 2019-20, part of an estimated six per cent reduction in overall justice system spending. During the budget debate in March, UCP Justice Minister and Solicitor General Kaycee Madu said he was “confident” the agencies in his department would have the funding they needed. Assistant deputy minister Bill Sweeney added that the government is reviewing the Police Act, the legislation governing ASIRT, to see whether its mandate might be shrunk or expanded.
Amanda Hart-Dowhun, a lawyer representing the family of a person who died in EPS custody more than two years ago, said ASIRT’s funding problems send a message.
“It’s both striking and telling when we compare these delays with the average time that it takes for any non-police person to be investigated and charged with a crime,” she said in an email. “The lack of funding and the resulting delays show the people impacted, and the public, that prosecuting police officers accused of criminal offences is not a priority.”
Steinke-Attia, who previously worked for EPS, said delays also send a message to officers.
“They look at that officer every day, coming to work, putting on his uniform, and they see nothing’s happening.”
Many in law enforcement, for their part, support increasing ASIRT funding. Edmonton police Chief Dale McFee has said he supports increasing ASIRT’s budget and moving the internal police complaints process to a similar entity. Edmonton Police Association president Michael Elliott said officers under ASIRT investigation also want speedier resolutions.
Irfan Sabir, the Alberta NDP justice critic, argued the government’s focus is elsewhere, including on creating a provincial police force.
Standards of proof
Another source of frustration for ASIRT observers is the Crown’s hesitancy to prosecute ASIRT files.
ASIRT is able to lay charges on its own, but will only do so if the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service agrees there is a “reasonable likelihood” of conviction. ASIRT’s standard of proof is lower — Hughson, a former prosecutor, need only establish “reasonable grounds” to believe an officer committed a crime.
Between 2015 and 2020, ASIRT handled 352 files and concluded charges were warranted in 66. Just 22 of those — one-third — were taken up by the prosecution.
Other times, the Crown will take the file but withdraw or stay the charge after a short time.
ASIRT and the Crown have butted heads on several files in recent months. Most notably, in October, ASIRT decided a Sherwood Park RCMP officer with a history of assault complaints should be charged for slapping a handcuffed man in the face. The Crown disagreed, saying there was insufficient evidence.
Tom Engel, an Edmonton defence lawyer and police critic, said the disconnect between ASIRT and the Crown shows the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service needs a specialized group of prosecutors to handle charges involving police officers.
jwakefield@postmedia.com
twitter.com/jonnywakefield
ASIRT, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, was at a “ critical breaking point ,” executive director Sue Hughson told commissioners during their monthly meeting. The agency’s already considerable backlog of cases was growing. Provincial funding shortfalls and staff vacancies were driving the roughly two-dozen investigators on her team to the brink, working “back-to-back-to-back” on police misconduct files across the province.
“When we’re calling at three o’clock in the morning to send them to Grande Prairie when they just got home the night before from another location … that becomes very taxing and it becomes very dangerous,” she said.
Nine months later, critics say ASIRT has passed the breaking point. More than a year after the murder of George Floyd shook public confidence in North American policing, ASIRT is still closing files from 2018 . Longtime staff are leaving. And even when an ASIRT investigation concludes a police officer ought to be charged, prosecutors oftentimes decline to take the file.
“There needs to be something done, and very quickly,” said Heather Steinke-Attia, whose client, Pacey Dumas is suing an Edmonton Police Service officer under ASIRT investigation for allegedly kicking him in the head. “Otherwise, this whole oversight body is just a facade. It’s just paying lip service to the idea that there (is) this independent body that’s investigating (police).”
© Provided by Edmonton Journal Sue Hughson, executive director of ASIRT, speaks to media on Jan. 24, 2019, after charging a police officer with assault causing bodily harm.
‘Not a priority’
ASIRT is staffed by current and former law enforcement officers who investigate cases where police kill or seriously injure someone, as well as “serious or sensitive” allegations of misconduct.
Since its founding in 2008 , ASIRT has laid criminal charges against 44 officers for everything from assault to sexual assault to fraud to criminal negligence causing death.
Over the years, ASIRT’s file load has increased steadily. Before Hughson took over in 2014, ASIRT was assigned an average of 32 cases a year. It now averages 72.
Backlogs have long been a problem, but the Dumas case brought the issue to the fore.
Dumas, a 19-year-old Indigenous man from northern Alberta, claims EPS Const. Ben Todd kicked him in the head during an arrest last December, necessitating surgery to remove a section of his skull. As of early November, Dumas was still missing a piece of skull, and Todd was still on the job, albeit under investigation. In response to the delay, Hughson said ASIRT was still handling files from 2018 and the backlog wasn’t going anywhere without additional staff and funding.
On the staff front, ASIRT has seen a number of recent departures, most notably assistant executive director Greg Gudelot , who left to head-up Saskatchewan’s police watchdog. In an email, Hughson referred to a “long line of retirements and resignations” in the past year, adding the agency was “grossly under-resourced and … struggling with an unmanageable workload.”
As for funding, the Alberta government cut more than three per cent from ASIRT’s budget since 2019-20, part of an estimated six per cent reduction in overall justice system spending. During the budget debate in March, UCP Justice Minister and Solicitor General Kaycee Madu said he was “confident” the agencies in his department would have the funding they needed. Assistant deputy minister Bill Sweeney added that the government is reviewing the Police Act, the legislation governing ASIRT, to see whether its mandate might be shrunk or expanded.
Amanda Hart-Dowhun, a lawyer representing the family of a person who died in EPS custody more than two years ago, said ASIRT’s funding problems send a message.
“It’s both striking and telling when we compare these delays with the average time that it takes for any non-police person to be investigated and charged with a crime,” she said in an email. “The lack of funding and the resulting delays show the people impacted, and the public, that prosecuting police officers accused of criminal offences is not a priority.”
Steinke-Attia, who previously worked for EPS, said delays also send a message to officers.
“They look at that officer every day, coming to work, putting on his uniform, and they see nothing’s happening.”
Many in law enforcement, for their part, support increasing ASIRT funding. Edmonton police Chief Dale McFee has said he supports increasing ASIRT’s budget and moving the internal police complaints process to a similar entity. Edmonton Police Association president Michael Elliott said officers under ASIRT investigation also want speedier resolutions.
Irfan Sabir, the Alberta NDP justice critic, argued the government’s focus is elsewhere, including on creating a provincial police force.
© Ian Kucerak Heather Steinke-Attia holds a photo of her client Pacey Dumas after he was hospitalized in late 2020. A lawsuit filed by Dumas and his family claims Edmonton police Const. Ben Todd kicked him in the head during an arrest last December. Dumas was never charged with a crime.
Standards of proof
Another source of frustration for ASIRT observers is the Crown’s hesitancy to prosecute ASIRT files.
ASIRT is able to lay charges on its own, but will only do so if the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service agrees there is a “reasonable likelihood” of conviction. ASIRT’s standard of proof is lower — Hughson, a former prosecutor, need only establish “reasonable grounds” to believe an officer committed a crime.
Between 2015 and 2020, ASIRT handled 352 files and concluded charges were warranted in 66. Just 22 of those — one-third — were taken up by the prosecution.
Other times, the Crown will take the file but withdraw or stay the charge after a short time.
ASIRT and the Crown have butted heads on several files in recent months. Most notably, in October, ASIRT decided a Sherwood Park RCMP officer with a history of assault complaints should be charged for slapping a handcuffed man in the face. The Crown disagreed, saying there was insufficient evidence.
Tom Engel, an Edmonton defence lawyer and police critic, said the disconnect between ASIRT and the Crown shows the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service needs a specialized group of prosecutors to handle charges involving police officers.
jwakefield@postmedia.com
twitter.com/jonnywakefield
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