Albertans still have time to weigh in on what they think the future of policing should be in the province.
The province's online survey opened Dec. 3 and will be available until Jan. 4. The survey covers topics including attitudes toward police, the role of police in the community, discrimination, governance and complaints.
The government can’t hold town halls to engage with the public, but they can put surveys out there, said Shane Getson, MLA for Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland. Results can give officials a "line of sight" into the nature of policing and what issues with policing people may have, he said.
“It gives us some of those touchpoints where, I visually can't see any more by a show of hands (but) I can get this little survey and I can kind of get that sense,” he said.
The survey asks questions about what the public’s attitude is toward police, what role the police play in the community, whether or not police should be conducting wellness checks and if the public knows how to make a complaint against an officer.
How Albertans feel about policing could change depending on where they reside, too – that is one thing the province hopes to glean from the survey.
“How do most people feel about this? Is there a delineation as well between rural and urban? Are there elements out there that that could be managed a bit differently based on folks in their own backyard?” said Getson.
The government is in the process of reviewing the Police Act. The Act hasn’t been updated since 1988 and changes to the Act are expected for the fall of 2021.
Marie Renaud, MLA for St. Albert, said these are all great topics for discussion, but she questioned the timing of the survey and how brief some of the topics were.
“To have the whole issue of wellness checks in one question ... it doesn’t make sense to me, this is such an incredibly vital issue,” Renaud said.
Renaud said she understands the Police Act hasn’t been reviewed for more than 30 years, but the timing could have been better.
“These are incredibly important topics – incredibly important – that require thoughtful people to take their time and ensure that every voice that wants to speak is heard. You don't do that in December during a public health emergency,” she said.
Getson doesn’t agree with the criticism against timing.
“You want to take a break from the COVID news hour every 10 seconds (to) fill out a survey,” he said.
