An expert panel’s latest report detailing recommendations for the troubled Thunder Bay Police Service’s oversight board calls for major and measurable changes to prevent further erosion of police morale and trust in the force.The report, billed a “roadmap for real change,” was released Thursday, after decades of building pressure on and scrutiny of the TBPS and the Thunder Bay Police Services Board, dozens of reports, investigations and coroner’s inquests, and hundreds of recommendations.The independent expert panel was created in March 2022 amidst reports of low officer morale, human rights violations, and investigations into criminal misconduct by officers and leaders in the force.Shortly after the panel was formed, a leaked confidential report detailed serious deficiencies in sudden death investigations of Indigenous people in Thunder Bay and called for the reinvestigation of 14 cases, including some as recent as 2019.The new report calls for urgent, transformational change to overcome growing frustration — including calls from First Nations leaders for disbandment of the force.The report warns that without significant, measurable evidence of change, “we will continue to see an erosion of morale and effectiveness within the service and irresolvable issues of trust outside it.”
