Police Intervention and Complaints
Date: June 18, 2020
Classification: Unclassified
Fully releasable (ATIP)? Yes
Branch / Agency: RCMP
Issue: RCMP policies and practices on police intervention and how complaints are addressed.
Proposed Response:
- It is critically important for Canadians to feel protected by the police, and absolutely paramount that employees, communities, partners and Canadians have trust and confidence in the RCMP.
- The level of police intervention that is applied in any situation is done so in the context of a careful risk assessment that accounts for the likelihood and extent of potential injury and damage to property.
- Most occurrences can be resolved through dialogue, which is why crisis intervention and de-escalation training is mandatory for all RCMP officers. However, occasionally, police intervention may be necessary, including the potential use of intervention options or safety equipment.
- The RCMP will use only the level of intervention necessary that is reasonable and to ensure the safety of all citizens and to maintain peace, order and security, and any intervention and use of related safety equipment are subject to strict policies and guidelines.
- Any individual may make a public complaint concerning the conduct of any RCMP employee who at the time was in the performance of their duties.
- The RCMP considers all public complaints to be important and tries to address them in as timely a manner as possible while at the same time ensuring they are assessed thoroughly and appropriately.
- The RCMP will continue to preserve the peace, protect life and property, and enforce the law, maintaining the use of intervention options as a last resort.
Background:
RCMP members are held to a higher standard of conduct. The RCMP is committed to handling conduct issues in a timely, efficient and fair manner. RCMP members are subject to a Code of Conduct both on and off-duty, in Canada and abroad. The RCMP is subject to several internal and external review processes that ensure its police officers are accountable for all police intervention occurrences and member-involved shooting incidents. Internal processes may take the form of an investigation by professional standards, a review by a use of force subject matter expert, or an Independent Officer Review.
External Reviews of Major Police Incidents occur where there is a serious injury or death of an individual involving an RCMP member, or where it appears that an RCMP member may have contravened a provision of the Criminal Code or other statute and the matter is of a serious or sensitive nature. The RCMP has extensive operational manual policies designed to ensure transparency, accountability, and openness, mandating that an independent civilian agency or external law enforcement body conduct the investigation whenever possible.
Complaints Process: Part VII of the RCMP Act stipulates that any individual may make a public complaint concerning the conduct of any RCMP employee who at the time was in the performance of their duties. Further, the Chairperson for the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP may initiate a public complaint, if they are satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to investigate the conduct. The ultimate goal of the public complaint process is to provide excellence in policing through accountability.
Public Complaints received*
2015-2016: 2,109
2016-2017: 2,341
2017-2018: 2,317
2018-2019: 2,317
2019-2020: 2,286
*NOTE: These numbers differ from the CRCC statistics, as the CRCC screens out complaints that they determine are not within the mandate as legislated in Part VII of the RCMP Act. Only those complaints that are within the mandate are sent to the RCMP for investigation.
From 2017 to 2019, the RCMP entered an average of 2.93 million occurrences per year into RCMP records management systems. Over this time period, each year there were on average 2,215 encounters involving reportable applications of police intervention. Applications of police intervention account for 0.08% of the total number of RCMP occurrences, or one encounter involving police intervention for every 1,322 occurrences. This indicates that approximately 99.9% of RCMP encounters are resolved naturally or successfully de-escalated by officers without the need for police intervention.
Incidents involving police intervention are complex, dynamic and constantly evolving, oftentimes in a highly-charged atmosphere. Police officers must make split-second decisions when it comes to using interventions. For this reason, the Incident Management Intervention Model (IMIM) is introduced in the second week at the RCMP’s Training Academy, Depot, and then integrated into all other relevant aspects of training for the remaining 24 weeks. After leaving Depot, annual IMIM re-certification is mandatory for all regular members.
The IMIM assists with training members to consider all intervention options, and outlines the various levels of options available, based on that individual officers’ risk assessment. The risk assessment process takes into account subject behaviour, situational factors, tactical considerations and the officer’s perception. Situational factors vary widely, but may include: weather conditions, location, number of subjects, and presence of weapons. These are all taken into account to appropriately determine what action(s) to take.
IMIM training promotes continuous risk assessment based on all risk factors of the subject’s behaviour, situational factors, tactical considerations and officers perceptions. After an incident, the model can also help a police officer articulate the factors they considered when choosing the appropriate intervention.
Furthermore, a Crisis Intervention De-Escalation course has been developed and is mandatory for all police officers. The course provides a deeper understanding of conflict and how de-escalation skills are critical to police work with communities. This de-escalation training helps police officers assess risk in crisis situations, and de-escalate these situations more effectively and safely.
The RCMP continually reviews its policies, procedures, training and equipment to ensure it is using the most effective practices in law enforcement. The RCMP’s approach in responding to protests has evolved significantly and it is moving away from enforcement-focussed policing toward a measured and intelligence-led approach using community conflict management principles.
The RCMP has an Operational Framework to Address Large Scale Protests. The framework encourages officers to prevent and resolve conflict, accommodate and respect differences and interests, and strategize to minimize the need for use of force.
In support of this framework, the RCMP has developed Community Conflict Management Group (CCMG) training that is available to RCMP employees and other law enforcement agencies. CCMG training teaches interest-based communication skills, strategic thinking, and relationship-building techniques to facilitate the timely resolution of conflicts. CCMG-trained police officers use relationship-building techniques, emphasizing proactive engagement to establish trust, respect and accommodation of the positions and interests of all parties.
In any interaction with the public, RCMP members are guided by the RCMP’s Bias-Free Policing Policy, which is based on the principles of equality and non-discrimination, as well as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Canadian Human Rights Act and the RCMP Act’s mission, vision and values. Bias-free policing means equitable treatment of all persons by all RCMP employees in the performance of their duties, in accordance with the law and without abusing their authority. The ethnicity of a subject is not a factor in a police officer’s risk assessment and decision-making process for selecting appropriate intervention options.
Contacts:
Prepared by: Konrad Roberts, A/Senior Policy Analyst, Contract and Indigenous Policing, RCMP – 343 542 2628
Approved by: Brian Brennan, Deputy Commissioner, Contract and Indigenous Policing, RCMP – 613 843 4632
- Date modified: