Law of Policing Conference

Join this early riser session for an interactive discussion on police strategies for recruitment and retention from the organization to micro level.

• Overcoming recruitment challenges and combating public perceptions
• Embedding learning, talent, career mobility and development into organizational strategies
• Administering one-on-one conversations to keep employees engaged
• Interacting with officers in crisis, and officers facing complaints and disciplinary action
• Incorporating Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the organization
• Addressing onboarding and training hurdles
• Effective strategies for retention

• Ensuring the private information of citizens is treated with integrity
• Delineating when it is ethical to give personal information to an AI – right to privacy versus public safety
• Determining how to fence data for specific purposes and ensuring it is not accessed for inappropriate purposes
• When AI uses are inappropriate, who is at fault and what does professional negligence look like
• What can be predicted and how will it be used for investigations
• Ensuring a human being will oversee, validate and corroborate AI data and usage
• How can counsel use AI, and assess drawing conclusion for evidence derived from AI

This session will look at the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in R. v. McNeil (2018), which addresses the disclosure of a police employee’s misconduct and Crown Counsel’s Duty to Make Reasonable Inquiries.

• Examining the breadth and depth of McNeil disclosure as it pertains to sworn and civilian members
• Debating when expungement is relevant and when officer misconduct becomes irrelevant due to the passage of time, with a look at recent case law including R. v. McKee (2023) ABKB 698
• Balancing a police member’s privacy versus police transparency

A look at involuntary detention or hospitalization under the New Brunswick Mental Health Act intended to provide “equal rights to appropriate care and treatment to a person whose mental illness puts them or other at substantial risk.”

• Safeguarding patient rights including, reason for detention, retaining legal counsel, medication, contacting relatives

Deaths in custody are at a 10-year high in prisons, according to a report by the British Columbia Coroners Service. It is estimated that 71 percent of all accidental deaths are due to unregulated drug toxicity.

This session will address best practices to prevent in-custody deaths in a police setting and the liability that flows from these deaths, including:

• Examining best practices employed by police agencies for housing prisoners
• Considering criminal liability following a death in custody incident, including organizational liability
• Discussing an officer’s duty to record the call for service vs. self-incrimination
• Assessing the training gap for police officers, and considering whether police should have medical training
• Debating when someone should (or should not) be in custody
• Examining recommendations from BC Coroner’s inquests

• Conducting an effect investigation
• Legal obligations to investigate and assessing credibility
• Case law review including, Metrolinx v. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1587 (2024)

• Determining when a warrant is needed, when a drone can be used, and for what purpose, from “eyes on the scene” to evidence being used in court
• When drones can be used for investigative tasks and when it becomes search and seizure under the Criminal Code
• Examining a person’s resealable expectation of privacy in the context of a drone’s capability
• Comparing Section 8 of the Criminal Code, Surveillance, as it pertains to crowd control and assessing threat

The Supreme Court of Canada declared the federal law that gives control of child welfare services to First Nations, Inuit and Métis nations is constitutional in a February 2024 decision. This comes on the heals of the federal government’s Bill C-92, An Act Respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families which gives control of child welfare services to individual communities.

• The role of police in supporting the federal law
• Comparing how the law will vary from nation to nation, and what that means for police services
• Examining how the law will affect family court proceedings

This session will delve into how to conduct a gap analysis for implementing the recommendations from the Mass Casualty Commission, published March 2023.

• Implement five principles of effective critical incident response
• Ensuring emergency operational plans are current and utilized throughout all divisions
• Determining supervision during a critical incident response
• Clarifying the roles and responsibilities during a critical incident response
• Commissioning an external expert review of its initial critical incident response training for front-line supervisors
• Packing a critical incident commander “ready go duty bag”
• Ensuring an accredited critical incident commander assumes command of a critical incident response as soon as possible
• Ensuring all staff have access to 911 call recordings at their desk
• Reviewing incident logging software to ensure that it allows call-takers and dispatchers to capture all information, and that standard operating procedures are implemented