P.E.I. 'very interested' in Atlantic Provinces-wide police watchdog

The policing services manager for P.E.I.'s Department of Justice and Public Safety says Prince Edward Island is "very interested" inan Atlantic Provinces-wide system to investigate serious incidents involving police.

"It serves a veryimportant need for the province to have an independent entity which can provide that kind of in-depth and professional service to the province," Gordon Garrison told CBC News.

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Senior government officials in the four provinces have confirmed the plan is to expand Nova Scotia's Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) into a region-wide investigator.

P.E.I. currently contracts civilian investigators with SIRTon a case-by-case basis when the justice minister requests an investigation.

There have been five such cases in P.E.I. since April 2015, beginning withan investigation into a Charlottetown police officer shooting a teenager at the Charlottetown Mall.Other cases have includeda sexual assault and use of excessive force.

Expertise, confidence

Garrison saidthere would be benefits toa region-wide watchdog.

"That way we [would] have the advantage of creating an expertise in that area," he said. "And also an elevated level of confidence because we have the ability to rely on an entity such as SIRT.... We can rely on them because they're regarded well by the community and they're regarded well for their expertise and their independence, and that's the vital piece of this."

The four Atlantic provinces are in discussions on the best way to set up a regional SIRT system.

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Funding levels from the four provinces and how the system will operate are still being worked out. There is no timeline.

P.E.I. did not consider setting up its own watchdog due to the relatively low number of cases where it is needed, Garrison said.

The existing watchdog in Nova Scotia has a mandate to investigate cases that involve death, serious injury, sexual assault, domestic violence or other matters of "significant public interest" that may have resulted from the actions of a police officer, and to decide if charges should be laid.

The annual cost of operating SIRT in Nova Scotia is about $850,000.

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