Calgary police Chief Roger Chaffin pledges more transparency in spite of 'no comment era'

Chief Roger Chaffin says the Calgary Police Service needs to continually build relationships and be transparent about the conduct of its officers, especially given the current "mood"surrounding law enforcement in North America.

Whiletherelationshipbetween citizens and police is lessstrained here than in many cities in the United States, Chaffin said Calgary is not immune to the types of conflict and mistrust that have emerged south of the border.

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Chaffin, who has been criticized recently for his response to a video that emerged of a violent arrest outside a popular 17th Avenue bar, told David Gray of The Calgary Eyeopener that he hopes to be more open, more quickly in the future.

Here is an abridged transcript of their conversation:

Q: What stops you from saying more when these events show up on social media?

A: "First off, the discussions were generated out of an open police commission meeting where the topic about our communications and some of our restrictions came up and my discussion then had more to do with the fact that we seem to be in more of a sanitized communication era with our relationship withASIRT (the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, which investigates police actions.)

"The point I was making is that, in this day and age, I don't think the public is really comforted by limited or no comments on some of the most serious things that happen between the police and community."

Q: I suspect that's probably true. There were a lot of questions this summer why haven't we heard from the police chief on this and, to be honest with you, your predecessor used to come forward a lot more often to talk about these issues than you do. Is it personal choice for you, or are you restricted in what you're able to say?

A: "I know ASIRT's goal is really to protect the sanctity of investigations where police are involved in a serious event. My preference would be to actually say a bit more about them, to speak up a little more, particularly in the early days, to say something so that the community understands what has happened and that we're involved.

"I think, at the end of the day, the challenges with speaking to the community are heightened more now than they ever have been. I think the mood in North America just demands more upfront communication."

Q: What do you mean by that, 'the mood in North America?'

A: "Well, if you follow what's happened anywhere in North American policing right now, the challenges around the conduct of policing, the conflicts between policing and communities in some areas, particularly the United States, really screams for an openness between community and policing.

"And sometimes that's not handled well if you're living in more of a no-comment era. I just don't believe in the no-comment era. I think we should be speaking freely about these issues."

Q: South of the border, you're right, there's enormous mistrust between some communities and police forces. It's bubbled over into electoral politics in the United States. We're not there in Canada, though, are we? Is Calgary's situation similar to what we're seeing south of the border?

A: "Well, when we talk to communities, particularly diverse communities, all those challenges exist there. Now, we don't see it in the volume or maybe to the extent that we're seeing it down south, but there are lessons to be learned from what's happening in the U.S.

"All police chiefs want to listen and understand that. These are the sort of the things, if you let it get ahead of you, if these things get away from us, they're very difficult to ever return. In Calgary, we enjoy a significance amount of confidence in the community. But those are earned confidences and they can be eroded away, as well, if we don't speak, if we don't talk to issues, if we don't listen to communities."

Q: Everybody has got a camera on them these days on their phones, and it doesn't tell the full story, when you just see a little snippet of video, but the truth is, Calgarians have seen video that's made them worried about how some officers have behaved. What stops you from getting up in front of a microphone and saying, 'Wait a minute folks, let's take another look at this.' Why don't you jump out on that?

A: "Well, on that one particular one there were some delays over the weekend within the organization that I just sort of sat on in order to try to understand better before I got up and spoke. Particularly with this era we're in now where elements of an incident can be captured on video, speaking before I have the facts, before we understand what happened can lead us down a path where I could have said something wrong or mischaracterized what we just saw in the investigation. So it just took me a little bit of time over the weekend to sort that one before we got up to speak to it."

Q: City councillor Diane Colley-Urquhart was the one who flagged this and said it was troubling that we didn't hear from you for three days after the incident. Does it bother you when it becomes politicized? Politicians are now saying that they're worried you have haven't come out to talk about these things.

A: "No, not at all. There's no legitimacy in our profession in policing if people can't speak up and even speak critically or have some dissenting opinion about how business is running. And there are lessons to be learned from all of that. I think it's nice we can have that kind of frank and open discussion."

Q: So what's the answer, chief? What would you like to be able to do differently?

A: "Right now, I think it's still going to be a matter of working with all of our partners to improve our communications, to be able to improve the way we address these issues without throwing the entirety of our organizationunder the bus during issues. I think it's maturing our communications piece so that we're able to say the sort of things that both the community and the organizations understand why transparency is so important."

Q: I don't know what 'maturing our communications piece' actually means, but I'll tell you this: Anytime you want to come on to talk about an incident like this, just give us a call. We'll put you on the air. OK?

A: "You bet."