Police chief says events since convoy prove a change in approach

Ottawa's police chief says the force has beefed up communication with itsoversight board and city hallahead of major events to avoid the lack of coordination seenduring last year's convoy protest.

"There's just layer after layer of positive communication occurring," Chief Eric Stubbstold media after a meeting of the Ottawa Police Services Board on Thursday.

The board met the day after the city's auditor general Nathalie Gougeon released three separate reports on how the City of Ottawa, the Ottawa Police Service and the board responded to the convoy crisis.

Gougeon, who found the groups did not always work together smoothly, said "very big questions" remain about how the convoy protest spiralled into a nearly month-long event.

Shefound Ottawa policedid not share enough info with the city ahead of the convoy's arrival, which hinderedthe city's ability to plan operations such as transit service.

Although police had OPP intelligence as early as Jan. 13 that the protests would be massive and disruptive, she found the police chief at the time, PeterSloly, didn't inform the board chair former councillor Diane Deans until Jan. 24., only four days before protesters were scheduled to arrive.

Stubbs, who took over as police chief last fall, declined to comment on Sloly. He conceded the service's communication was sometimes "lacking" and that it's "just not in our DNA" to share operational plans.

When it comes to future major events including potentialanniversary demonstrations later this monththe police force has changed its communication approach, Stubbs said.

He added Ottawa police met privately with members of the board earlierThursday to discuss its operational plans over the next few weeks and ismeeting regularly with the city's Office of Emergency Management.

A "critical" new body called the Integrated Event Command Table brings together "all of our security and city partners in the same room with the same information," he added.

"What we did during the weekend of Jan.28and 29I think displayed the amount of changes that have occurred We are listening to lessons learned," he said, adding that improvedcommunication needs to be paired with action.

During the Rolling Thunder event last April, tactical teams moved in swiftly and quickly usedtow trucksto remove prohibited vehicles.

Police liaison officers monitoreddemonstrators on Parliament Hill during the recent one-year anniversary of the convoy's arrival, while a tow truckpointed towardthe hill remainedparked in front of the Chteau Laurierhotel.

"I'm confident and I am reassured by all of the work that's been done by the Ottawa Police Service in recent months and weeks," Stubbs said.

While Stubbs said the service improved its communication "fairly quickly" during the convoy protest, Gourgeon differed somewhat in her own comments, stating the improvements came "specifically towardthe tail end."

Sloly resigned as police chief on Feb. 15, one day after the federal government invoked emergency measures to quell the protest and three days before police moved in to begin ejecting the demonstrators.

The lawyers who represented Sloly during the commission's public hearings told CBC they are not commenting on the audits at this time.

The auditsfound fault with the city and police board too.

Co-ordination between all city departments did not happensoon enough into the protest, while they found the board failed to be transparentwhen it delegated Deans,instead of two members of the board, to hire a temporarynew police chief after Sloly resigned.

In an emailed statement, Deans said the board's four-member human resourcescommittee worked through the hiring process with her and, after considering the qualifications of candidates, directed her to make an employment offer.

"Legalcounsel assisted as did our advisor from the Solicitor General's office. There were no concerns raised by these board advisors," she said.

"The board was unaware of the imminent plan to end the occupation," Deans said of the hiring.

"Neither the police service, themayor or the city manager, all of whom had this information, provided this critical piece of information to the board in our oversight role."