Yukon RCMP aim to regain public confidence

Yukon's top Mountie says he's not surprised by new survey results that show fewer Yukoners have confidence in the RCMP, but the police force is working on regaining that confidence.

An annual survey of Canadians' attitudes towards policing show 16 per cent fewer Yukon respondents believe that the RCMP can keep aboriginal communities safe.

Yukon RCMP Chief Supt. Peter Clark said the survey was conducted last summer, when the deaths of two Yukon aboriginal men Raymond Silverfox and Robert Stone made headlines in the territory.

"The survey was actually done in June and July of 2010, and around that time there was quite a bit of concern and issues around the way police services were being delivered," Clark told CBC News on Wednesday.

Media attention

Both Silverfox and Stone had been in Whitehorse RCMP custody in the hours before their deaths.

A coroner's inquest into Silverfox's death in 2008heard that RCMP officers and guards ridiculed Silverfox and did not get medical attention for him for 13 hours. He later died in hospital.

The media attention surrounding the deaths of Silverfox and Stone has changed how people view the relationship between RCMP and the public, said Grand Chief Ruth Massie of the Council of Yukon First Nations.

"People are just a little bit more aware of the roles and responsibilities of policing," Massie said.

The deaths also prompted the Yukon government and the RCMP to launch a review of policing services in the territory last summer, when the survey was done.

Clark co-chaired the policing review committee, which released its findings and recommendations last month.

Meeting on Friday

The committee's report, Sharing Common Ground, recommends changes in the RCMP that include regular meetings with First Nations leaders.

"I think there's been a lot happening, both external to the RCMP and inside the RCMP," Clark said.

Massie said chiefs will be meeting with RCMP officials and Yukon Justice Minister Marian Horne on Friday to discuss, in part, why First Nations have been left out of policing agreements in the territory.

"Some of our leaders are questioning why that is not tripartite, because we do have the jurisdiction for policing," she said.

Massie said she is hopeful the continued communication between First Nations leaders and the RCMP will lead to positive changes.

Clark said the RCMP is taking other steps to address public concerns, such as bringing in outside investigators in cases in which the RCMP needs to be investigated.

Clark said he has recommended that the outside officers explain their findings at the end of their investigations.

"We need to be increasingly transparent and inclusive with the communities we're policing," he said. "That's the new face of the RCMP, that's the way it should be, and that's the way we're taking it."