Alberta\u2019s new police watchdog agency has selected its inaugural CEO \u2014 but one lawyers\u2019 group says it has concerns about the pick.<\/p>\n
This week, public safety minister Mike Ellis announced the appointment of Katherine Murphy to the Police Review Commission<\/a>, a provincial agency that will investigate Police Act complaints and criminal allegations against Alberta police officers.<\/p>\n Murphy, a lawyer, most recently worked as the Calgary Police Service\u2019s civilian chief strategy officer, where she oversaw legal services, professional standards, finance, policy and communications. She takes over from interim-CEO Michael Ewenson<\/a>, a Crown prosecutor appointed to the Alberta Court of Justice after a stint leading the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), which now falls under the Police Review Commission umbrella.<\/p>\n \u201cI am honoured to lead the Police Review Commission as it continues to grow and deliver on its important mandate,\u201d Murphy said in a statement. \u201cI look forward to working with the team to ensure independent, fair and transparent oversight that strengthens trust between communities and police across Alberta.\u201d<\/p>\n In an email, public safety ministry spokesperson Sheena Campbell said Murphy was selected for her \u201cextensive leadership experience, strong governance background, and demonstrated commitment to independent, transparent oversight of policing in Alberta.\u201d<\/p>\n But Tom Engel, the longtime Edmonton police critic and chair of the Criminal Trial Lawyers\u2019 Association (CTLA) policing committee, said he is concerned that the new organization will be helmed by a former police service employee rather than a prosecutor.<\/p>\n Engel noted that all three ASIRT executive directors have been Crown prosecutors (ASIRT continues to have an independent executive director, and its current acting director, Matthew Block, worked as a Crown).<\/p>\n \u201cCrown prosecutors, their job is to see that justice is done, that is their primary role,\u201d Engel said. \u201cPeople who work for the Calgary Police Service, that wasn\u2019t their role. Their role was to protect the Calgary Police Service.\u201d<\/p>\n The Alberta government began looking for a CEO<\/a> for the Police Review Commission in 2024. The agency, which is expected to top out at 157 employees, will handle both ASIRT investigations and Police Act complaints. The latter have traditionally been the responsibility of chiefs of police and investigated by internal units like the Edmonton Police Service Professional Standards Branch.<\/p>\n Critics say the internal system amounts to police policing police. Police unions have also criticized the set up, in part because the chief of police both prosecutes misconduct cases and appoints the presiding officer who hears them.<\/p>\n While police services and unions have applauded the move<\/a> to the Police Review Commission, groups including the CTLA have criticized<\/a> the process. The CTLA pulled out of consultations on the new agency in 2024, saying the process gave law enforcement with \u201ca special status to the exclusion of all other stakeholders.\u201d<\/p>\n The Police Review Commission launched last December, though at the time Edmonton Police Chief Warren Driechel said it will likely be a \u201ccouple of years\u201d before it completely takes over the police discipline process.<\/p>\n In a news release, the government said the review commission has spent its first five months \u201cbuilding robust operational processes, clear policies and strong investigative capacity to support independent civilian oversight of policing in Alberta.\u201d<\/p>\n Engel said he was \u201cextremely pessimistic\u201d about the new system, given the role former police service employees are playing in review commission leadership. He said it is doubly concerning given the shortcomings identified in the 2018 Arkinstall Inquiry<\/a>, which criticized the Calgary Police Service\u2019s approach to police discipline in a 2008 arrest.<\/p>\n Campbell, the ministry spokesperson, defended the inclusion of former civilian police officials in Police Review Commission leadership<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not uncommon for legal professionals to move between roles or sectors over the course of their careers,\u201d she said. \u201cThese transitions do not diminish their ability to carry out their duties with professionalism, integrity and independence. The focus remains on the individual\u2019s qualifications, ethical obligations, and the safeguards built into the organization\u2019s structure and mandate.\u201d<\/p>\n Murphy formally takes over the CEO role June 8.<\/p>\n jwakefield@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n x.com\/jonnywakefield <\/a><\/p>\n @jonnywakefield.bsky.social<\/a><\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don\u2019t miss the news you need to know \u2014 add EdmontonJournal.com<\/a> and EdmontonSun.com<\/a> to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal<\/a> | The Edmonton Sun<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alberta\u2019s new police watchdog agency has selected its inaugural CEO \u2014 but one lawyers\u2019 group says it has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[16695,12683,16691,51,341,16692,16694,830,16689,16693,16690],"class_list":["post-38812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-alberta-court-of-justice","tag-alberta-government","tag-alberta-serious-incident-response-team","tag-calgary","tag-calgary-police-service","tag-chief-strategy-officer","tag-crown-prosecutor","tag-edmonton-police","tag-katherine-murphy","tag-policing","tag-tom-engel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}