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Police Board Needs New Home: Fewer VPD Ties, Less VPD Dependence
Hello and YES I agree the Vancouver should be moved out of VPD Headquarters into a civilian building.
Thank you for the facts you sent me, everything you said makes perfect sense. This is why I believe so strongly in having regular discussions and votes, because the mayor and council do not have the time to researching everything alone and why should they when other people have already done the appropriate research.
If you haven't checked out my website, I encourage you to do so, I just updated it with forums and will add the details of your email to the site shortly.
Peace and thanks, Joe
In reply to:
Hello all,
Please give this question some thought; I'll try to ask it at All-Candidate meetings:
"Do you agree the Vancouver Police Board should be moved out of VPD Headquarters into a civilian building?"
Quick Facts
1) Two Board staff use an office in VPD Headquarters at Cambie & 6th Ave.
2) The Board itself uses a VPD Hq boardroom one Wednesday per month.
3) Other offices and boardrooms are available in civilian Vancouver buildings, including City Hall and its annexes.
Why leave Police Hq?
"The Board is the governing body for the Vancouver Police Department. It provides civilian oversight and governance of policing." --Homepage, Vancouver Police Board, emphasis added
1) Appearance of Conflict
A) Its present location makes the Board appear to be part of the VPD. The Board in fact is the civilian employer of all VPD staff.
As employer, the Board's purpose is "civilian oversight and governance." Its members are civilians, not police, to avoid the perception that police oversee themselves. Nevertheless, that perception exists-- partly because the Board's home is VPD Hq.
B) Unlike Parks Board or School Board, the Police Board has no building of its own. The Board's dependence on VPD administrative facilities conflicts with its mandate as overseer and governor of the VPD.
C) At its monthly Board meetings, because the boardroom is too small, uniformed police sit among Board members. Police appear to be Police Board members, discussing issues, overseeing themselves.
Compare this with City Council, the Parks Board, or School Board: when they meet in public, their staff sit separately. For the public, that separation clarifies roles and avoids confusion. Police Board and VPD role-clarity is important because, for most citizens, their relationship is not clear. Their relationship to Mayor and Council is even less understood...
A slightly larger room would at least permit a separate staff table. Apart from rooms in other buildings, the Board's monthly meetings could even be held in the Council Chamber, since it's vacant on Wednesdays.
2) Accessibility and Transparency
"The board strives for a fair and responsive interaction between the police and the community." --Police Services Division webpage on Police Boards
Even though it authorizes the city's biggest budget-- the VPD's $164 million, which is 21% of the city total-- the Police Board must restrict access to its public meetings because of security at Police Hq.
Members of the public must:
a) Sign their names in a Visitor Log
b) Wear a "Vancouver Police -- Visitor" badge
c) Wait all together in the lobby until the Board signals they may be admitted
d) Be escorted by a police officer into the elevators
e) Ride with the officer up to the 7th floor
f) Be escorted down the hall and into the meeting room.
g) At adjournment, the public is escorted by police back to the elevators, down, and out into the lobby.
This does not assist an open, accessible, and transparent "interaction between the police and the community"--or with the Police Board. The VPD's conspicuous and controlling role in the Board's public meetings adds to public confusion.
Who Governs?
As a result of these and other factors, the perception persists in Vancouver that oversight and governance of the VPD is exercised mostly by the VPD itself. That perception reduces the credibility and effectiveness of both the VPD and the Police Board.
Relocating the Police Board would be good for the Board, the VPD, and citizens.
Rider Cooey |
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