We’re ready to tackle crime in Nunavik, KRPF says

Aileen MacKinnon, chief of the Kativik Regional Police Force, talks June 2 with Danieli Qinuajuak, the regional councillor for Akulivik, at the Kativik Regional Government meeting in Akulivik. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

AKULIVIK — With a new police chief, Aileen MacKinnon, and more than $1.5 million in new crime prevention money, the Kativik Regional Police Force says it’s ready to tackle Nunavik’s rising crime rates.

But according to statistics tabled June 2 at the Kativik Regional Government council meeting in Akulivik, the KRPF has its work cut out.

So far in 2010, the total number of criminal files handled by the region’s police is up by 1,000 cases compared with the same period in 2009— from 1,786 in 2009 to 2,663 in 2010.

For the same three-month period, between January 1 and March 31, 2010, assaults topped 2009 numbers by more than 100.

Compared to the same period in 2009, sexual assaults in 2010 nearly doubled in number, and impaired driving charges increased by 60 cases.

In Akulivik, people say 2010 has been one of the worst years for alcohol-related disturbances. Statistics to date show one sexual assault in which alcohol played a role, and eight impaired driving charges.

All alcohol shipments into Akulivik were barred for the duration the KRG meeting held there this week.

The apparent tranquility of this community of 550 was broken only the week before the meeting, when a young man, with a record of previous serious firearms offenses from 2008, walked down the main street of the town shooting a rifle.

KRPF statistics show criminal activity continues to be high across Nunavik, with Kuujjuaq, Kuujjuaraapik, Puvirnituq leading the way.

Most crime is related to drug and alcohol use, police say, which the KRPF hopes to diminish through the activities of its new youth cadet corps and the hiring of a crime prevention officer.

Police also continue to seize drugs and alcohol, according to figures presented to the KRG meeting.

From January to April, the KRPF seized a variety of narcotics and liquor with a total street value of $357,840, including:

• 898 mickeys— 198 from Inukjuak;

• 3,259.5 grams of marijuana— 2,004 from Inukjuak

• 200 pills of speed in Puvirnituq

• 60 vials of hash oil in Kangiqsualujjuaq;

• 22 grams of hash in Akulivik and Inukjuak;

• 17 750-ml bottles of alcohol, mainly vodka;

• 32 1.14-ml bottles of alcohol;

• 25 1.75-ml bottles of alcohol;

• 552 bottles of beer.

That’s in addition to the seizure of 34 pounds of marijuana in Montreal bound for Nunavik, which the Surêté du Québec provincial police picked up last month, as well as another 3,000 grams of marijuana, 337 grams of hash and $9,385 nabbed by the joint SQ-KRPF Nunavik investigation unit in Kuujjuaq.

However, councillors at the KRG complained some people still get around alcohol restrictions in their communities by having friends in Kuujjuaq or Kuujjuaraapik order supplies for them.

Some councillors at the meeting also said police sometimes seize cargo or luggage suspected of containing drugs or alcohol without a warrant.

MacKinnon explained that in some conditions police can make seizures without a warrant and then later present the paperwork to a judge.

Several councillors also complained about physical abuse from police, although statistics tabled June 2 show police are also regularly pummeled: over the past three months, there have been 89 cases of assaults against police, including 13 in Salluit, 19 in Puvirnituq and 26 in Kuujjuaq.

MacKinnon said there’s a protocol in place for citizens to make complaints of physical abuse from police, with forms available at police stations.

MacKinnon also invited people to call her or her deputy chief, Tristan Greene, directly at their office in Kuujjuaq.

MacKinnon also said there are now video cameras in police stations to record what happens inside.

A lack of Inuttitut-speaking police was raised as a reason why more unilingual Nunavimmiut get into scuffles with police.

“They’re more mistreated than some people who speak English or French,” Danieli Qinuajuak, the regional councilor for Akulivik, told the KRG meeting.

MacKinnon said “without a doubt” the KRPF needs more Inuttitut-speaking members.

The KRPF’s new cadet program should encourage more youth to join the police department, she said.

To better deal with calls to police, a trilingual dispatch service is also under consideration.

And to hear more public concerns about policing, the KRPF plans to take two field trips in Nunavik this year, MacKinnon said.