Sask. government may release details of investigation into Prince Albert police

Provincial policing Minister Christine Tell said on Wednesday her ministry is considering releasing the details of an investigation into the Prince Albert Police Service.

“It’s under active consideration as of today,” Tell told reporters at the legislature.

In November, the ministry appointed former Edmonton police chief Rod Knecht to conduct an outside review of the Prince Albert police. Tell told reporters at the time the force was “struggling.”

On Wednesday, Tell said the ministry would work with the Prince Albert Board of Police Commissioners first to try to achieve consensus on releasing the information, but maintained that making the information public could begin a “process of renewal.”

Tell alludes to a “high number of recommendations” in the report that will only be achieved with the cooperation of the police service.

“I think that when things are released, then there’s fulsome conversations. Everybody knows what everybody else knows. And I do believe that a process of renewal, a process of making the necessary incremental changes, it all needs to be done cooperatively.”

When the independent review was announced, the board of police commissioners acknowledged the service had come under the scrutiny of a number of independent bodies, including the Saskatchewan Police Commission, the Coroner’s Service, and the Public Complaints Commission.

In February 2022, the Public Complaints Commission was asked to investigate after Prince Albert police arrested a mother in an early-morning domestic dispute call, only to return to the same house several hours later to find her 13-month-old son dead. The boy’s father was charged with second-degree murder.

The Saskatchewan Serious Incident Response Team has two current investigations into the force, including the circumstances surrounding the violent arrest of Boden Umpherville on April 1, and a 34-year-old man who died after being shot by a police officer in January.

Umpherville died in hospital Wednesday morning after his family removed him from life support.

“These incidents that involve bodily harm, or serious, grievous bodily harm; it doesn’t matter who’s involved. It’s always concerning. It is concerning to the people of Prince Albert and it’s concerning to the Government of Saskatchewan,” said Tell.

“These incidents are not the genesis, though, of the reasons why we had this operational administrative review.”

Tell said she can’t say what the reasons for the review are until the report is released.

One concern Tell acknowledged was the number of people dying in custody.

“When you have a number of people dying in custody … probably higher than what we have seen in other municipalities ... our radar goes up,” she said.

“That doesn’t mean there was anything wrong, but there’s a higher number than what has previously been experienced in other municipalities.”

The province is not obligated to release Knecht’s report, but Tell says she believes it should be considered for public release.

Tell said they will decide whether or not to release the report and recommendations in the next few weeks.