The Edmonton Police Commission (Commission) recognizes the importance of efficiency in investigating complaints. The Police Service Regulation provides the Commission with the authority to extend the time limit for the Chief of Police (Chief) to charge a police officer with misconduct.
Guidelines:
- The Chief shall bring a request for a time extension to the Commission prior to the expiry of the time limit set out in Section 7 of the Police Service Regulation.
- Each time limit extension request will not exceed the amount of time allotted for charging a police officer with misconduct or commencing a hearing as established in Section 7 of the Police Service Regulation.
- The Commission will determine if there are circumstances that warrant an extension of time to investigate a complaint. The Commission will not address the merits of the complaint allegations.
- The Commission will strive for procedural fairness by considering all time limit extension requests made prior to the expiry of the time limit in the same manner and following the same procedure outlined below.
Procedures:
- 1.All extension request reports will contain the following information:
- Date original complaint was received;
- Basic outline of the steps taken to investigate or resolve the complaint;
- Timelines regarding the criminal process underway to determine the length of time the complaint may be suspended pending the resolution of the criminal process;
- Length of the extension being requested;
- Other relevant dates or milestones.
- Requests shall first be provided by the Chief to the Public Complaint Director (PCD).
- The PCD shall review the requests, request additional information from the Chief as required, and bring the requests forward to the Professional Standards Committee (PSC).
- The PSC shall review the requests, request additional information from the Chief as required, and prepare recommendations to be brought forward to the Commission.
- The Chair of the PSC shall bring to the Commission the extensions requested by the Chief together with the recommendations of the Committee.
- The Commission shall decide whether to grant the extensions requested.
- The PCD will coordinate the preparation of orders granting or denying each extension request, which will be provided to the Chief.