Building Trust Through Bold Action: Roadmap for Real Change. Final Report of the Independent Expert Panel to the Thunder Bay Police Services Board April 2023

By Expert Panel to the Thunder Bay Police Services Board

In the Spring of 2022, we, the Independent Expert Panel, were engaged by the Thunder Bay Police Services Board (the Board) to provide advice in support of taking immediate actions to address ongoing issues of policing in Thunder Bay. As part of this engagement, we were asked to develop a final report to help guide the Board moving forward. After an initial round of public and private consultations in July of 2022, there was an urgent need to address three areas, including recruitment of leadership and the strengthening of workplace culture within the Thunder Bay Police Service (the Service), which prompted the release of our Interim Report in September 2022, followed by additional in-person and virtual consultations in October 2022. This is our final report, and we offer it with a sense of urgency. We have heard widespread dissatisfaction and a profound lack of trust in the community and within the Service. Hundreds of thoughtful recommendations made over the last few years as part of previous inquests, reviews, and investigations lie unimplemented or inadequately executed. Our extensive consultations with members of the public and the Service brought to our attention the significant consequences of persisting with the status quo. The time for small fixes, tinkering and modest change has long passed; bold transformative action is well overdue. The Board, the Chief of Police and Senior Command of the Service, as well as the City of Thunder Bay must commit themselves to taking immediate action now with a keen and watchful eye and the support of the province and appropriate oversight agencies, in particular, the Ontario Civilian Police Commission (OCPC). Failure to do so will only strengthen the prevailing sense of despair and intensify calls for external intervention, such as disbandment of the Service. There is an obligation for the Government of Ontario, through these oversight agencies, to ensure that the Board and the Service have the funding and support required to fully implement the necessary changes. The citizens of Thunder Bay cannot bear these costs alone.

Thunder Bay, ON: Thunder Bay Police Services, 2023. 202p.