Ottawa police report jump in complaints in first three months of 2022

Complaints to the Ottawa Police Service jumped in the first quarter of 2022, however, that spike is largely due to the nearly month-long truck convoy occupation that happened in February.

The Ottawa Police Services Board will hear at its Monday, April 25 meeting that Ottawa’s Police Service received 327 public complaints from the public — this is compared to 77 complaints police received during the same time last year.

Combined with internal complaints, that number jumps to 329, which is a 139 per cent increase in total complaints compared to the first quarter of last year.

However, about 84 per cent of the complaints made by the public in 2022 so far (or 275 complaints) were labelled as issues relating to “police conduct” during the convoy, although the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) —which oversees public complaints related to police matters — said it had screened out 95 per cent of those complaints.

The total number of complaints dealing with officer conduct received in Q1 2022 was 346, up from 160 in Q1 2021, or 116 per cent.

This data includes conduct complaints related to the illegal protest, prior to OIPRD screening.

Police not doing enough to manage the occupation and police doing too much were among the several of complaints the OIPRD screened out.

the OIPRD also completed 288 investigations, with 253 — or about 88 per cent — were deemed “frivolous, vexatious, over six months after the facts on which an event was based to have happened, involved a third party where the complainant was not affected, or deemed to be not in public interest.”

However, three complaints did result in informal discipline, none of which resulted in a disciplinary hearing.