Victoria announces new policing practices amid demands for police reform

VICTORIA (NEWS 1130) — Victoria Police have announced new rules to manage racism and Vancouver is expected to be next.

“The past few weeks have been very challenging,” a statement from the Victoria Police Department reads.

The Victoria and Esquimalt Police Board voted on several actions to address racism and discrimination, which includes hearing recommendations for improvements from an advisory committee, having additional anti-racism and de-escalation training, and doing an analysis of the demographic of their officers.

Although Dr. June Francis, co-chair of Hogan’s Alley Society, is still remaining critical of the department’s response.

“The fact that the police do not already collect data that indicates their own composition … So today they’re suddenly going to start to collect data about the composition of their own force. This is how far behind this is,” Francis says.

Tom Stamatakis, President of the Canadian Police Association, tells CityNews the outline of the work Victoria PD plans to do to address racism and discrimination came as a bit of a surprise.

“These are things that have either have been occurring or should have been occurring all along. I think it’s totally appropriate for the police board, and I think they shouldn’t be involved in. Having a good understanding of what training their police officers are receiving. They should also have a good idea of what the demographics of their police service are,” he says.

Meanwhile, Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart is expected to provide his city’s response to the growing calls for police reform late Thursday morning.

Victoria PD declined CityNews’s request for an interview.