Ministry of the Attorney General – Office of the independent police review director
Office of the Independent Police Review Director: Online enhancements lead to more transparency and dramatic service efficiencies
About the Art
This project is all about process and efficiency, essentially oiling the gears to create a well-run machine. The artwork, rendered in charcoal sketches, captures the essence of this concept through the layering of numerous gears working seamlessly in tandem.
Original artwork by Surface Impression (Aedán Crooke) for the Information Privacy Commissioner of Ontario
As part of a process modernization, the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) has made several enhancements to online transparency, resulting in innovations and efficiencies impacting Ontarians.
The OIPRD is an independent civilian oversight agency that receives, manages, and oversees all public complaints about municipal, regional and provincial police in Ontario. As part of a process modernization, the OIPRD has improved online transparency in innovative and efficient ways that positively impact the lives of Ontarians.
The website has been reformatted to be more user friendly and functional for public accessibility (the main landing page was updated, and now includes new features such as career opportunities and the agency’s organizational structure). These enhancements include the redesigned E-Status Tool, where the public can follow their complaint through the various stages of the review process. In addition, a newly updated complaint form is simplified, mobile friendly, accessible to the public, and includes the option for complainants to request Early Resolution on the first page. Additional transparency initiatives are planned, pending proclamation of legislation, including posting summaries of unsubstantiated investigation/decision outcomes.
Video transcript
There were some obvious challenges, and this is from listening to stakeholders. One, the agency was not timely. Two, the agency wasn’t transparent enough. So put it in context, we had nearly a thousand case backlog. That’s the number of complaints by citizens against police officers. They weren’t hearing back from us in 51 days and sometimes even more. So what we did with this project is we wanted to reduce that service timeline, and we did so from 51 days to 11 days, a 78% improvement.
So we revamped all of our online forms to make them simpler. So now that’s reflected in the fact that over this period, from 2020 forward, we’ve gone from 3,000 complaints annually to 5,000 complaints annually. That is a testament to the fact that it is accessible, it’s efficient, it’s fast for Ontarians to make a complaint against police officers in this province. This project was immense. It was re-imagining our service to Ontario’s from the beginning through to the end. And the transparency will lead to more trust, not only in police services themselves, but in oversight agencies such as the OIPRD.
The OIPRD launched a dynamic Police Service-by-Service Statistical webpage, one of the first in Canada, documenting up-to-date statistics regarding the number of complaints received and managed, the nature and outcome of those complaints, and the number of requests for a review received in a year by each police service. This has improved the transparency and accountability of the public complaints system. It has also been adapted to a calendar cycle to better support police services and the public in assessing data.
These changes improve the transparency and accountability related to the public complaints system and are part of a broader process of modernization that has led to some very impressive results. The OIPRD is seeing case management time for screening reduced by 78%; investigations referred to police services 85% faster; 91% of complaint files resolved within six months of receipt, and 97% completed within 12 months. Additionally, on average, over 500 complaint cases (out of almost 5,000 managed cases) is resolved using Informal Resolution and Early Resolution, as an alternative to full investigation.
The OIPRD has become more efficient, resulting in greater transparency with the public. This is a good example of how process modernizations that involve open data and greater transparency can result in concrete gains for everyone involved.
