Circumpolar cops meet in Iqaluit to talk crime

Dale McFee, the president of the Canadian Association of Cheifs of Police, left, speaks at a news conference in Iqaluit Sept. 21 as Chief Supt. Steve McVarnock of the Nunavut RCMP looks on. Police brass from across the circumpolar world met in Iqaluit this week to talk about ways to combat similar problems in their communities. (PHOTO BY CHRIS WINDEYER)

Police chiefs from across the circumpolar world gathered in Iqaluit this week to talk about common problems and share ideas for possible solutions.

Law enforcement brass from Greenland to Nunavut and Alaska were especially drawn to the experience of police in Saskatchewan, where police work with various government agencies to intervene with people in trouble before they end up in the criminal justice system.

“Police alone are not going to solve our community safety issues,” said Dale McFee, police chief for Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and the newly-elected head of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.

McFee said twice-weekly meetings between police, educators, health and social service workers has helped get people out of bad situations before they become a crime statistic.

The result, McFee said, is “taking things out of the system before they get in the system.”

It’s a more advanced version of what RCMP in Nunavut have been trying to do by sitting on the Embrace Life Council and the Liquor Act review task force, and by offering counselling services to people who spend the night in the drunk tank but aren’t charged with crimes.

Steve McVarnock, the RCMP’s chief superintendent for Nunavut, said he’d like to see a system for the territory that’s similar to Saskatchewan’s.

He said McFee’s lessons show the value of crime prevention that’s based on evidence of what approaches work rather than “trying to put out fires.”

“That’s the road ahead,” he said.

The meeting was also a chance for police from other Arctic jurisdictions to compare notes on the problems of high levels of alcohol abuse and violence that seem to plague the entire circumpolar world.

Bjorn Bay, the Nuuk-based chief of Greenland’s police force, said Greenland’s problems with alcohol abuse and domestic violence are essentially the same as in Canada.

“It’s a great opportunity for me to find out how they solve some of the same challenges,” he said.

Joe Masters, Alaska’s state police commissioner, said his state struggles with a crime rate that’s 2.5 times the American national average.

He said 47 per cent of Alaskan women have experienced domestic violence in their lifetimes, and 10 per cent have experienced it in the last month.

In Canada, the territories have similarly high rates of domestic violence.

Despite those similarities, this is the first time Alaska police have met with their Eastern Arctic counterparts to talk about ways to prevent crime, Masters said.

“Most of the time when we in Alaska look at law enforcement… best practices, we generally look south, to the lower 48 [states],” he said.