In Ontario, each municipal police force is overseen by a police services board.
These boards play a key role in setting the tone of policing in their community. Among other responsibilities, police services boards set priorities for their local police service, appoint members to the force, recruit and appoint the chief of police and monitor the performance of the chief.
In Peterborough, the local police board has five members. Two are city council members who are appointed by the mayor. One is a citizen who is selected by city council. And two are appointed by the provincial government.
That means candidates running for MPP in Peterborough—Kawartha could be involved in this selection process if they’re elected on June 2.
Who they’d choose is an especially pertinent question in Peterborough, where there is a history of instability on the police board.
In recent months, the board has been making headlines for a couple of reasons.
First, there was the abrupt “retirement” of former Police Chief Scott Gilbert, and the subsequent reports that local police unions had submitted formal complaints about Gilbert’s behaviour before the retirement. At the time, then-chair of the police board, Les Kariunas, said there was no need to investigate any complaints.
Second, there was the sudden resignation of Kariunas himself after video surfaced depicting him campaigning on behalf of MPP Dave Smith. Kariunas said he resigned due to personal health reasons.
But the stability of police governance in Peterborough has been an issue for longer than that. In 2016, the Ontario Civilian Police Commission (OCPC) called Peterborough’s police board “dysfunctional” and appointed an external lawyer to oversee meetings to keep them on track. And a few years before that, the OCPC suspended Mayor Daryl Bennett from the board after finding him guilty of misconduct on the board.
This history suggests that the Peterborough community needs to engage in more frank discussions about who should and shouldn’t serve on our police board.
To get that discussion started, we asked candidates running for MPP in the current provincial election what qualities they’d look for in an appointee to the board, and what priorities they’d want their appointees to bring to the table.
We reached out to candidates Greg Dempsey, Jen Deck, Robert Gibson and Dave Smith to invite them to participate in our election podcast coverage. Smith did not respond to our requests, and so in this episode, you’ll only hear from the other three.
