OIPRD probe of Thunder Bay police still on track, says police review director

Ontario's police watchdog says his investigation into allegations of systemic racism in the Thunder Bay Police Service is still on schedule.

Gerry McNeillysays he intends to release his report by late spring.

McNeilly, who is the Independent Police Review Director for Ontario, began the probe in November, 2016.

"We're trying to complete interviews as soon as possible," he said. "We're doing a series of interviews in January, and that should be the bulk of them. We may have a few others left, because we keep adding ... to the numbers of people we want to interview, people who've indicated an interest to be interviewed by us."

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So far, the process has involved reviewing about 40 investigations done by ThunderBay police, as well as conducting a number of interviewswith people and organizations in the city.

McNeillyhas said his probe isn't reinvestigating cases themselves, rather it's examining documents and interviewing officers to determine whether the same steps are being followed, regardless of the background of the person whose death or disappearance is being investigated.

"Thunder Bay needs to come to some resolution around some matters," McNeilly said. "If I can help in any way, or my organization, that's what we're here to do."

"But this is a complex investigation, a complex review that I'm doing with my team."