Overwhelming Majority Support Creation of Police Oversight Board: Poll

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

St. John’s, NL — An overwhelming majority of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians support the creation of a police oversight board for the province, according to a new poll commissioned by First Voice and conducted by MQO Research. When asked whether they support or oppose the creation of an independent, civilian-led, nonpartisan police oversight board, nearly nine out of ten respondents (88%) said they support the idea, with a majority (52%) saying they “strongly support” it. Support is consistently high across all key demographics, including age, gender and sexual identities, racial identities, voting intentions, and geographic regions.

“That the creation of a civilian-led police oversight board has such decisive public support shows this is an idea that resonates well beyond the urban Indigenous community. It’s now up to the provincial government to say where it stands.”

—Caitlin Urquhart, Co-Chair of the First Voice Working Group on Police Oversight

“There are few public policy ideas that enjoy such broad-based support,” said Caitlin Urquhart, Co-Chair of the First Voice Working Group on Police Oversight. “That the creation of a civilian-led police oversight board has such decisive public support shows this is an idea that resonates well beyond the urban Indigenous community. It’s now up to the provincial government to say where it stands.”

The same poll also found that only half of all respondents have a high level of confidence that police officers in Newfoundland and Labrador are “held to the same standards of justice as everyone else,” with a majority of LGBTQ+ respondents (52%) disagreeing with that suggestion. A minority of respondents (40%) indicated they trust the kind of self-investigative structure that is used by the RNC Public Complaints Commission and SIRT-NL.

The creation of a civilian-led police oversight board is one of the key Proposals for Change that the First Voice Working Group on Police Oversight put forward in a draft report released last month. That same report also includes proposals for strengthening and streamlining the RNC Public Complaints Commission and SIRT-NL, with a view toward improving confidence in both.

A summary report of the poll’s findings, along with associated data tables, can be found online at firstvoicenl.ca. The results are considered accurate within 5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.