Police chief moves fast on meeting-security complaints

Robert Keetch, the Sault’s new police chief (shown), today took immediate action to assure unimpeded access to public meetings of the local police services board.

Robert Keetch, the Sault’s new police chief (shown), today took immediate action to assure unimpeded access to public meetings of the local police services board.

“I will have a representative of this police service present in the lobby in advance of the public portion of the meeting,” Chief Keetch told SooToday.com.

“Any individual interested in attending will be granted access,” he promised.

This, Keetch said, was the way public meetings were handled at the Sudbury Police Service, from which Keetch was recruited.

The chief’s comments were in response to SooToday.com’s disclosure on Thursday of complaints filed against city police by Ray Dawson, a community activist.

For some time, Dawson has been trying to persuade the Sault Ste. Marie Police Services Board to investigate employment practices at local cab companies.

The board licenses local cab owners, brokers, drivers and vehicles.

Two weeks ago, Dawson filed complaints with the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) about difficulties he encountered trying to attend a public police board meeting on November 27.

Board meetings are held in a high-security area on the second storey of police headquarters on Second Line.

Dawson said he was stopped in the front lobby by police officers who seemed concerned only about building security, not providing timely access to citizens wishing to attend the supposedly public meeting upstairs.

SooToday.com has sometimes encountered similar delays gaining access to the second floor to attend public meetings held there.

Dawson argues that police board meetings should either be held in a more relaxed venue or staff should be trained to better handle guests attending public meetings on the second floor.

Dawson has also asked OIPRD to investigate whether any of the matters discussed behind closed doors at the November 27 meeting could have been discussed in open session.

Chief Keetch and Ian MacKenzie, chair of the police board, both told SooToday.com that they thought Dawson wanted to speak at the November 27 meeting, but legal counsel had advised that his taxi-industry concerns should be referred to the provincial Ministry of Labour.

So Dawson wasn’t on the agenda.

Dawson had been pressing the police board to require the three local cab companies – Yellow, Union and Cruz – to prove within one month that they were complying with provincial labour law, particularly the provisions for minimum wage.

Taxi companies that cannot prove compliance should lose their licences, he said.

The taxi activist is also concerned about a police board meeting on October 30 at which a larger-than-usual number of visitors came to hear a presentation about on-demand wheelchair-accessible taxis.

Because of the crowd, that gathering took place in a large training room next to the second-floor boardroom where meetings are usually held.

After the accessibility presentation ended, most members of the public left and the meeting was moved back into the boardroom.

But Dawson says he wasn’t invited inside and wasn’t advised that further public proceedings would take place.

Chief Keetch told us today that, before the police board’s open meeting on October 30, members met behind closed doors to discuss the process to be used to select a new deputy chief.

The Police Services Act of Ontario states that “meetings and hearings conducted by the board shall be open to the public” with two exceptions.

The public may be excluded from all or part of a meeting or hearing if the board is of the opinion that:

“Matters involving public security may be disclosed and, having regard to the circumstances, the desirability of avoiding their disclosure in the public interest outweighs the desirability of adhering to the principle that proceedings be open to the public; or

“Intimate financial or personal matters or other matters may be disclosed of such a nature, having regard to the circumstances, that the desirability of avoiding their disclosure in the interest of any person affected or in the public interest outweighs the desirability of adhering to the principle that proceedings be open to the public.”

Asked what sort of intimate financial or personal matters might be involved in a discussion of a hiring process, Chief Keetch told SooToday.com that board members reviewed questions to be put to applicants.

“Those can’t be made public,” he said.

Ian MacKenzie promised this week to work to resolve complaints about meeting access if he’s reappointed next week as the city’s representative on the police services board.

To read our story from earlier today, please click here