Vancouver Police Board’s lack of transparency ‘raises alarm bells’: expert

The Vancouver Police Department headquarters is seen in a CTV file image.

After receiving a $175,000 boost to its budget, the Vancouver Police Board has only scheduled four meetings for all of 2026—half the number held last year, the bare minimum required by provincial legislation, and far fewer than other municipalities.

CTV News has asked the board on multiple occasions since February if it will be holding any more public meetings, particularly given that its website says there are seven per year.

The only statement provided was to refer to the online schedule, with a note that “any additional public meeting dates will be updated on the website as required.”

The board’s mandate is to provide non-partisan civilian oversight to the Vancouver Police Department, which has a budget of more than half a billion dollars for 2026—an election year during which the city is also hosting the FIFA World Cup.

The prospect of the number of public meetings being slashed in Vancouver combined with the board’s refusal to answer a basic question “raises alarm bells” for an expert in police oversight.

Prof. Erick Laming, a criminologist at Trent University, said public meetings are crucial to a municipal police board’s mandate, which is to be accessible, accountable and transparent to citizens and taxpayers.

“The people who are on these boards are serving in the public interest, they’re serving for the public. They’re overseeing and governing everything that goes on in the police service,” he told CTV News, noting that the police budget is one of a board’s biggest priorities, but not its only one.

Public meetings provide an opportunity for organizations or individuals to address the board, which in Vancouver includes the city’s police chief and mayor. They are also where reports on complaints, crime statistics and police initiatives are tabled and where top brass provide updates on the force’s work.

While legislation only requires four meetings per year, Laming said he doesn’t know of any boards that meet that infrequently—even in smaller communities.

“Even if you don’t have that much business to get through, it’s still important that you meet, because you give that forum to the public. You’re dealing with issues that are really important to everyone,” he said.

Police boards in cities like Calgary and Toronto have published their full 2026 calendars online, and each has eight meetings scheduled. In B.C., publicly available calendars show Surrey’s board is set to meet six times, Delta’s has eight meetings scheduled and West Vancouver has nine on the books.

“The fact that one of the largest police services in Canada and one of the largest police services municipally aren’t giving that opportunity to the public—if they’re cutting it and they’re not coming out and being transparent in why they’re doing that—it’s very strange,” Laming said.

“The whole point of a police board is to be transparent to the public.”

Having fewer meetings also means board members and the public have to review and receive more information on each occasion, which Laming says raises the question of whether there is adequate time to grapple with the important issues that come before the board.

And does having fewer meetings mean the board is doing less work despite being given more public funding?

“That’s a legitimate question,” Laming said.

The number of meetings a police board holds each year is a matter Laming acknowledges might not be top of mind for Vancouver residents or voters—but he argues it is important.

“This affects us all. These are the people who actually make probably the biggest decisions in our communities,” he continued.

He makes a similar point about the board’s refusal to answer CTV News’ question. While there are some issues a board or its members can’t comment on, Laming does not think the number of meetings is one of them.

“It makes no sense,” he said.

Outgoing board chair Frank Chong did not answer emailed questions about the meeting schedule for 2026, deferring to the executive director, who ultimately referred CTV News to the website and did not respond to any follow-up messages.

Chong’s statement announcing his departure from the board at the end of his term said he was “most proud of the culture of trust we have cultivated” and that he had the “utmost confidence in the board’s ongoing work to provide rigorous, independent oversight.”

But Laming said public trust and public confidence in the board’s ability to meet its mandate are undermined by a lack of access and transparency.

“The more that you hide from the public, the less trustworthy you’re going to be to the public,” he said.

The police board meets Thursday and is not scheduled to meet again until Sept. 17, nearly five months from now.

B.C.’s Police Act says boards should meet “as frequently as is necessary to discharge its duties and functions” and also says the “interval between any two consecutive regular meetings must not exceed four months.”