Five members of the public plus two city council members has been appointed to the police commission to help establish the newly formed Grande Prairie municipal police service.
Councilor Dylan Bressey says the decision making process was a thorough one, with council making sure the chosen people have experience in various fields that would help contribute greatly to the project.
“When we were appointing the commission we were looking to make sure that we had a broad range of both professional and lived experiences of our commissions’ members,” says Bressey “This is tremendously complex stuff, we wanted to make sure there is a diverse range of knowledge so that we have the expertise we need on that commission.”
According to Bressey, the principle of democracy in Canada is that politicians don’t direct the police, instead, some independent civilians give police government and so that is what brings the commission about.
“This is the local government body that will hire a chief of police, supervise the chief, set policies within the police service, and ensure that it’s saving the community well. And it also has to meet some pretty rigid provincial standards.”
Some of those chosen have backgrounds in leadership, and law, one of them was previously a city councilor and many more rigid experiences that qualify them. Bressey extended his appreciation to everyone who put their names forward to be considered for the police commission.