Critics question how Edmonton police share information following fatal officer-involved shootings
Posted December 11, 2023 3:14 pm.
Last Updated December 12, 2023 7:29 pm.
After two fatal police-involved shootings that ended in the death of a man and a woman just days apart, critics question how Edmonton police are sharing and not sharing information when officers shoot and kill someone.
In the latest case, it was 24 hours before the public knew officers had taken someone’s life during a mental distress call.
That leads to unnecessary speculation, according to civil rights advocate and lawyer Tom Engel.
“They’re creating a situation where you could speculate a number of scenarios and that’s not right. The police shouldn’t be doing that,” Engel said.
He says the details police release are “too vague,” especially when it comes to recent cases where police have used tasers before fatally shooting someone.
“My view is that you either say nothing because it’s under investigation or you give all the information you have to the public,” said Engel.
Erick Laming, an assistant professor of criminology at Trent University who studies police oversight, says 24 hours is a “fair” timeframe for police or the police watchdog to let the public know what happened.
“The quicker the better, just so you’re being on top of it,” said Laming. “If a police service is involved in a serious incident, immediately they need to contact the oversight agency. Their mandate is to do that in all jurisdictions.
“It’s usually well within that 24-hour period.”
‘Pockets of information’
Laming feels withholding information could erode public trust in police.
“There shouldn’t be a reason why they aren’t communicating this, even if it’s so brief, and just saying, ‘we’re investigating an officer-involved shooting,'” he said.
“It doesn’t take much to communicate that to the public.”
Laming says there are several “moving parts” in a police investigation.
“These are usually incidents that we will usually get pockets of information from the police or the oversight agency and the media sort of fills in the blanks and it will be months, years before we really get a full picture of what happened in those cases.”
WATCH: Family of woman killed in police-involved shooting calling her death “unnecessary”
Speaking to the media Sunday, EPS Chief Dale McFee says the force tries to get information out quickly. While they have gotten better, McFee says, they can’t say anything to jeopardize the independent investigation. He adds speculation doesn’t help.
Laming adds there will always be speculation, an issue that can be tempered with better communication with the public.
“Having regular check-ins with the public, whether that is putting out a release every couple months on the progress on the investigation could help quell some of that,” said Laming.
‘This could follow them around for the rest of their lives’
When police do release information to the public after they’ve fatally shot someone, the force itself or the oversight agency do not name that person. In contrast, murder victims are routinely named.
Laming says that’s standard across the country to protect the identities of people involved.
“A lot of people who go through these incidents with police are not killed, so this could follow them around for the rest of their lives if your name is out there,” he said.
Laming feels Ontario is a great model when it comes to police oversight bodies. The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) must provide an update to the public after 120 days, and then every 30 days after that until it’s completed.
“There’s some accountability built in there into that legislation,” he said. “I think he can even do better than that; I think we could have more progress reports, especially if it’s a serious case and the public wants this information.
“These other oversight agencies can do a better job staying consistent around that. Some of them are trying to be.”
WATCH: Man killed in police-involved shooting downtown Edmonton
But police watchdogs are having trouble keeping up with cases, Laming says. He attributes that backlog to a lack of resources — budget constraint and not enough investigators.
“Over time we’re going to have to probably invest a lot more money into these oversight agencies to keep them accountable, to keep them top notch and keep them to a high standard across Canada.”
