Nunavik’s top cop wants to build trust

KRPF chief Michel Martin, right, sits down with officer Sammy Snowball, one of the force’s few Inuit members. “They’re aren’t many, but we have a few very good Inuit police officers,” Martin said. “And they’ll take over in the future.” (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

KUUJJUAQ — Nunavik’s new police chief says he wants to bring stability to the Kativik Regional Police Force and build a stronger sense of trust between its officers and the communities they serve.

Michel Martin was appointed as KRPF chief and director of public security for the Kativik Regional Government last June.

From the window of his Kuujjuaq office, Martin admires Nunavik’s police headquarters and notes how much it’s grown since the KRPF was established in 1996.

Martin, now 62, has a lengthy career in policing, including time with the RCMP at the United Nations, although most of his career was spent with the Sûreté du Québec in Montreal, where he began his career as a police officer in the 1970s.

He worked in a number of roles, from patroller to investigator and detachment chief.

In the early 1990s, Martin spent four years as an inspector for the SQ’s northern program, which oversaw policing in Nunavik before the KRPF was created.

In those days, Martin said the police stations that special constables worked out of were basic trailers divided into three sections: an administrative office, a holding cell and a transit section furnished with a bunk bed.

“We’ve come a long way,” Martin laughs.

Back then, policing in the region saw a high turnover, with special constables frequently coming and going.

That part hasn’t changed for the modern-day KRPF, he acknowledges.

But it’s his intention to change that, and the way the force’s members interact with the communities they work in.

“I need to focus on stability,” he said. “We see a big turnover. And it takes months to get to know the community, the work.”

But it’s not just “being there,” he acknowledges, it’s also about building a sense of trust. Martin knows Nunavimmiut have a strained relationship with their justice system, for which police are the first point of contact.

Martin said that the force’s budget, which is attached to short-term funding agreements with the federal and provincial governments, has often forced the KRPF to hire short-term or part-time officers.

His hope is to change that, and bring in more permanent officers who can develop a positive presence where they are stationed.

“Police need to open up the channel of communications,” he said. “They need to be part of the community. This is something we’ve asked our members to do.”

For example, police officers in Kuujjuaq serve breakfast at the local school, Martin said. If officers visit their local health centres regularly, he says, they can get to know people as first responders and understand other issues facing the community.

Building stability and trust has a lot to do with attracting more Inuit officers to the force, too, as “they’ll take over in the future,” he said.

Martin himself has committed to travel the region and visit each of the communities, but he acknowledges that this isn’t enough to earn the trust of Nunavimmiut.

“It’s the local representatives who need to be the focus,” he said.

At 62, Martin himself is clear that he won’t be in Nunavik for many years to come.

“I’m not here for 10 years, but I’m here to prepare the next generation,” he said.

“The territory is the size of France, and you have 80 officers in 14 different communities. Managing all that, from a distance, isn’t easy.”

While heading up Quebec’s northernmost police force, Martin also hopes to take on the violent crime and substance abuse that grip parts of the region.

“We know for a fact that less alcohol means less crime,” he said.

Martin said KRPF officers must also be prepared to deal with the number of high-risk situations involving guns — shootings or hostage situations — which are often fueled by alcohol.

“When it happens, [KRPF] are the first to arrive,” he said, noting it can sometimes take 24 hours before the SQ’s SWAT team arrives.

Because KRPF officers only carry pistols, Martin says he’s working to get officers access to higher-powered rifles, so they’re in a better position to protect communities in those hostile situations.

When a gunman is barricaded in residence, an officer positioned somewhere outside the home may not be able to return fire with their pistol.

“It’s really a last resort but we need to have [rifles] in extreme events,” he said. “We’d like to go the opposite way and use fewer arms, but we have to be prepared to protect citizens.”