Nembers of the Saint John Police Force have filed nine workplace harassment complaints against Chief Robert Bruce.
The nature of those allegations are sealed under a publication ban.
Before the complaints landed in court, Coun. Gerry Lowe brought a motion to abolish the Saint John Board of Police Commissioners — a model in place since 1998 — to improve police oversight.
Lowe argues communication between city council and the commission is limited.
Instead, he would like to see police force become a city-run department that is directly answerable to council.
“The complaints are represented by six or seven union people and two non-union people. What they are, we don’t know, and that’s one of the things that are wrong,” he said.
“If it was run by municipality, there’s a possibility we would know what the complaints are against the chief.”
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The New Brunswick Police Association is calling on the province’s public safety minister and WorkSafeNB to probe police workplace and oversight failures.
“The Association is deeply concerned about the prevalence of workplace harassment within the Saint John Police Force and the impact this has on front-line officers and their families,” Bob Davidson, an analyst with the association, said in a news release.
Saint John’s police force has said it won’t comment on the complaints because it does not want to interfere with a judicial process.
Saint John Mayor Donna Reardon, who sits on the police commission alongside one councillor and five citizens, calls this an opportunity to assess how policing is governed and whether a change could make the system better.
“I just would like to be comfortable in knowing that we’ve done our due diligence before we made that decision,” she said.
Reardon adds that the city should conduct legal, operational, financial and capacity reviews — as well as stakeholder engagement — before making any changes.
City staff have now been asked to review other governance options, including a model that puts police oversight directly into council’s hands.
— With a file from The Canadian Press
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