Police commission to audit misconduct investigations

The Saskatchewan Police Commission says it will do an internal audit ofpolice misconduct investigations in the province.

"It's not that it flags anything of concern," said Richard Peach, the commission's executive director, of the pending review.

"It's simply a matter of doing audits in areas where we think there's significant public impact just to ensure things are functioning the way they should."

121 investigations across province

The move was announced in the commission's latest annual report which, for the first time, gives a rundown of completed misconduct investigations during the course of a year.

"We just decided it was interesting information that would be of interest to the public," said Peach.

In 2016, investigations were completed into the conductof 121 police officers in Saskatoon, Regina, Prince Albert, Moose Jaw and Estevan.

The Saskatoon Police Service saw the largest share of thoseinvestigations, at 57, although only six of those cases resulted in disciplinary action that was agreed upon by the officer.

Other Saskatoon police officers (15) received what's called "non-disciplinary disposition."

"Those are situations where the officer's conduct may not have perhaps been optimal but fall short of ... an offence against discipline," said Peach.

Officers under that category received coaching on their future conduct.

The Regina Police Service saw 33 investigations reach their conclusionin 2016. Eight of those resulted in disciplinary action.

Estevan was the only community on the list to have a police officer dismissed after a misconduct investigation.