police review board will have role in revamped nova scotia policing model, minister says
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justice minister becky druhan answers questions from reporters at one government place in halifax about the release of a policing review on wednesday, june 25, 2025.
ryan taplin
/
the chronicle herald
proposed changes to policing in nova scotia could come with an unintended decline in transparency and accountability from police service providers.
“in the event that the rcmp were to take over and the municipal police be disbanded, at least in some if not all places, that would potentially be problematic from a general public point of view,” said wayne mackay, professor emeritus at dalhousie university law school.
“one effect of that is that there would not be the general public input on the review board as there is for municipal policing.”
the province is currently served by the rcmp, which is responsible for policing over 50 per cent of nova scotians and over 80 per cent of the province’s land mass, along with 10 distinct municipal police forces serving the regional municipalities of halifax and cape breton and the smaller municipalities of amherst, annapolis royal, bridgewater, kentville, new glasgow, stellarton, truro and westville.
justice minister becky druhan in june announced foundational changes to provincial policing to ensure services are adequately resourced to increase visibility, responsiveness and community engagement.
transparency and accountability
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under the changes, the 10 municipalities involved were given the choice to maintain their independent policing agencies by providing full and complete services or to shift to a provincial policing model and have the rcmp provide all of their policing services.
that is where the transparency and accountability issues come in.
the nova scotia police review board is a provincial civilian body tasked with oversight of police conduct involving the 10 municipal police forces and their officers.
those conduct standards are provincially legislated and apply to the 10 municipal agencies but not the rcmp, which has its own code of conduct and basically polices its own members.
a member of the public who has an issue with a municipal police department member or members or the department itself about a police interaction can file a complaint with the specific police department and with the nova scotia police complaints commissioner.
dan kinsella, then chief of the halifax regional police, waits to testify jan. 5, 2023, at the police review board hearing into a complaint launched by kayla borden against two hrp members.
francis campbell
/
the chronicle herald
the specific police department then investigates and either dismisses the complaint or disciplines the officer or officers named in the complaint.
if dissatisfied with the police department’s decision, the complainant or the subject officer can appeal to the police review board, which can conduct a formal hearing before a three-person board panel, which usually includes the review board chair and vice-chair, both of whom have extensive legal experience and backgrounds.
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after conducting the hearing, with witnesses questioned by legal representatives, the board makes its decision and can impose penalties against police officers.
board decisions final, binding
the board’s decision is final and is binding on the department or officers involved in the complaint.
the proceedings are usually open to the public and media, as is the case with a review board hearing that is continuing this week in sydney in the appeal of a decision made by the cape breton regional police in relation to a public complaint by natasha davis.
the concern is that the oversight and accountability the review board affords could be lost or diminished under a provincial policing system consisting of more rcmp and less municipal force coverage.
druhan said thursday the future of policing in nova scotia includes both the rcmp and municipal forces.
“both of those organizations have a structure for addressing those kinds of complaints and those structures will remain,” the minister said. “there is no expectation or plan right now to change those oversight bodies.”
mackay said if there are legitimate reasons, “it certainly does make sense that continued policing, whether it’s at the municipal or provincial or at the rcmp federal level, should meet certain minimal standards” and that members be well trained and competent to respond.
carrie low, flanked by her lawyers, speaks to reporters on july 10, 2023, after the first day of the nova scotia police review board hearing into her complaint against the halifax regional police and const. boran novakovic.
francis campbell
/
the chronicle herald
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“that’s certainly a good and desirable objective and if (the province feels) that some kind of phasing out of municipal forces were necessary for that, then at a minimum they would need to provide for local access and accountability for the rcmp assuming those municipal policing capacities.”
mackay said if the province feels it is necessary to go the route of increasing rcmp coverage, “they have to rethink not only how the rcmp are acting and policing on a daily basis but how are they accountable and what input can people at the local level have to that kind of accountability.
“if they go on to eliminate that municipal aspect of the police review board, then there needs to be some substitute that is at least as effective as the one that it replaces, and hopefully more effective in many ways,” he said.
“one of the concerns again expressed in the report of the mass casualty commission was that the rcmp was a bit too much of a top-down military hierarchy kind of structure to be as accountable as they perhaps should be and that would need to change appropriately.”
mackay said that in policing, in law, health care and most other disciplines, “there are always concerns when an organization polices itself.”
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continued role for review board
if it’s not a problem in real terms, he said, it certainly creates a perception problem.
druhan said the goals of the provincial policing changes are about more accountability and more transparency.
“there is a continued role for the nova scotia police review board moving forward,” she said.
the rcmp civilian review and complaints commission (crcc) regularly publishes investigation outcomes, reviews, annual reports and other related materials on its website, druhan said.
druhan said the justice department “routinely engages with the crcc, and we will continue to work with all our policing partners to ensure public needs and expectations around accountability and transparency are met.”
druhan said the department has completed several meetings with the municipalities that have police forces and more are scheduled next week.
“we are in the very early stages of determining the path each of them will be on,” she said.
provincial policing standard audits of all policing agencies, including the rcmp, are on track to begin next month.
the policing changes also include the establishment of community safety boards to provide civilian oversight and governance across the full spectrum of safety services and druhan said the department will work with communities to determine how those boards will evolve.
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the safety boards are intended to enhance transparency, accountability and community trust but druhan made it clear that the safety boards are completely separate from the police review board and the safety boards will not be overseeing officer and police department conduct.
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