KRPF to develop action plan

KUUJJUAQ — The Kativik Regional Police Force wants help in tackling its own problems — and at the same time, problems in the communities.

“We want to hear what we’re doing wrong and what we’re doing right,” said KRPF deputy chief Luc Harvey.

At last week’s meeting of the Kativik Regional Government council in Kuujjuaq, Harvey and KRPF chief Brian Jones told councillors they’re planning to personally consult with all 14 Nunavik communities in January.

After this tour, police will draft an action plan and submit it to the KRG council’s next meeting in February.

“It’s kind of a cry of help that we’re going into the communities,” Harvey said.

However, Umiujaq’s regional councillor, Davidee Niviaxie, already had a stern message for police from his community’s new mayor, Abelie Napartuk, a former KRPF constable.

Last May Napartuk responded to a call that involved a drunken man with a gun. Napartuk had no backup and was unarmed.

Following this traumatic incident, Napartuk went on leave, and then resigned from the KRPF.

On Napartuk’s behalf, Niviaxie told the KRPF boss that cops shouldn’t be left alone in the communities.

“Each community should have at least two police. It’s too much work for one person even if they’re trained,” he said.

Niviaxie said police shouldn’t be hired until they’re fully trained, either.

“It’s almost like a disability if you’re not trained,” Niviaxie said. “It’s critical that we hire police, not just Inuit people.”

Several regional councillors also told Jones they want more police officers and a more stable police presence in their communities.

The KRG councillor from Tasiujaq, mayor Willie Cain, said police need more support or they will quit. Cain’s son is a cop in Tasiujaq.

“When you’re alone, when you have to deal with drunks, in those situations you definitely need someone to help you,” Cain said.

But the KRPF has had a tough time finding and keeping any cops. Recruitment and retention problems have dogged the force since its creation as an “aboriginal police force” in 1998.

The KRPF is supposed to be an all-native police force, but it’s been losing its local police almost as fast as it manages to train new ones. As a stop-gap measure, it’s hired southern cops on four-month contracts.

Four new cops from Nunavik graduate this week from Quebec’s police academy, but last week in Kuujjuaq the KRPF lost another Inuk cop who was dismissed after he started a drunken brawl with his fellow workers.

Jones said he wants Quebec to let the KRPF hire trained, non-Inuit cops for more than a four-month period — as is now the case — so Nunavik will have a more stable and well-trained force.

“That should give us the stability we want, so we’re not left holding the bag,” Jones said.

The KRG chairman Johnny Adams is also expected to seek more money for KRPF’s operations and for better police stations when he meets with Serge Ménard, Quebec’s minister of public security, this week.

Police in Nunavik appear to have their hands full.

At the recent meeting, Jones presented the latest crime statistics from Nunavik. As of October, police had opened files on 621 assaults, 141 incidents of domestic violence and 107 cases of sexual abuse.

The communities of Puvirnituq and Kuujjuaq logged the greatest number of offences, but Jones said there’s been an overall increase of crime in every community.

“It’s important to meet directly with the communities,” Jones said. “We’re doing lots of things, but it doesn’t seem to work out.”