New Brunswick Police Commission funding running out

The NewBrunswickPolice Commission is running out of cash to cover the cost of arbitration hearings even as morecases are being put on its agenda, according to its executive director.

Steve Roberge, the commission's executive director,said arbitration hearings and settlement conferences are quickly eating through the commission's budget.

He said the average settlement conference would cost the chief of police, or the civic authority or the commission, approximately $20,000. But he said the average cost for anarbitration hearing is about $56,000.

"Our biggest challenge right now is that we have 50 per centof our year completedand we have expended almost three-quartersof our funding," he said.

Our biggest challenge right now is that we have 50 per centof our yearcompleted, and we have expended almost three-quartersof our funding.- Serge Roberge, executive director New Brunswick Police Commission

The commission has completed three arbitration hearings this year involving officers from Saint John, Fredericton and Beresford-Nigadoo.

Roberge saidthe single biggest cost for the commission, after salaries, is legal fees.

Threehearing in the past two years have run up tabs totaling $152,077.

The estimated cost of the investigation and hearing for Fredericton's Const. Jeffrey Smiley is expected to be another $60,000, withthe other half of the $120,000 cost being paid by the city.

When a dispute can't be resolved in a settlement conference, it moves to arbitration.

The commission does not hear all arbitration hearings and only deals withones where the chief of police is, or appears to be, in a conflict of interest, or is new to the Police Act.

Roberge saidin the past two years, the number of arbitration hearings reaching the commission has steadily increased.

"Whether it's a tactic that they're employing, hoping that the commission and the chiefs and civic authorities will back down, or whether it's simply that they're feeling more threatened, I'm not sure what it is, to be candid with you, other than we've noted a trend in the last two years," Roberge said.

Union costs rising too

The costs are also rising for unions as more cases move to arbitration hearings.

Cpl. Shane Duffy, the president of Fredericton's police union UBC Local 911,laughs at the suggestion that it's a tactic to move to full hearings.

Duffy saidarbitration hearings cost the union a lot too.

According to Duffy, settlement conferences are always better, if both sides come in willing to negotiate.

"It would save us all moneyand save us all time, and save us all angst about going through that subsequent arbitration process," he said.

As for why so many more police officers seem to be in conflict with the laws they have sworn to uphold, Cpl. Duffy saidstress could be a factor.

"Work that used to be shared between 12 officers, now shared between eight officers," he said.

"It's just, I believe, a huge contributing factor. Stress related to the every day of the job continues to build and continues to built, and people under stress or duress don't always make the right decisions or the best decisions."

An arbitration hearing involving the Fredericton force and Const. Cherie Campbell is scheduled for Dec. 7 and another arbitration involving Smily is scheduled for May 24.

The commission must also deal withaccusations against Saint John's deputy police chief andthe suspension of two Bathurst police officers charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of Michel Vienneau.

Roberge saidhe has been in contact with the Department of Public Safety about the commission's expected shortfall, but the response has beenthe commission has to work within its budget.