Province creates commission to deal with complaints against police

By Lethbridge Herald on December 2, 2025.

Nathan Reiter
Lethbridge Herald
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Alberta Police Review Commission (PRC) is now operational.

The PRC is an independent process that will file complaints against police in an independent manner. There will be three distinct categories for PRC complaints. Level 1 is death, serious injury and serious/sensitive allegations. Level 2 is allegations of criminal or statutory offences while level 3 is complaints of non-criminal misconduct.

The commission was made possible due to the Police Amendment Act which was passed in 2022. The PRC will manage the full complaints process from receiving and accessing, to investigation and resolving complaints related to officer conduct including serious and statutory offences.

In a news conference on Monday, deputy premier and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services Mike Ellis said it was time for the process to change. 

“Policing is one of the most visible and vital parts of my department. It’s built on two pillars, trust and accountability. Trust that officers will serve with integrity. Trust that when something goes wrong, there is a fair and transparent process, one that is in place to hold law enforcement accountable and to make things right. 

“That trust depends on strong oversight. Albertans expect and deserve accountability from their police services, and they expect consistency. They expect a system that works for everyone. For far too long, the perception of the public was that police were investigating police. Because of that, there was a level of distress. It’s now time for change.”

According to a release, the PRC must complete all investigations within 180 days. If it cannot be completed within that time, the CEO of the PRC must publicly report on the delay and provide rationale for the decision. 

Michael Ewenson will serve as the interim CEO of the PRC after being appointed to the role back in July. He has previously served as a prosecutor and the executive director for the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT).

He said it’s important to get investigations done in a timely matter.

“There’s no mandated timelines. We want to get them out as soon as we can, simply put. It’s really about hearing out the complaint and having the investigation closed within 180 days. I can tell you that we’re voluminously staffed up to deal with the reporting requirements. We have a new website, I urge you to check it out. We’re much more transparent than we’ve ever been in terms of these sort of reporting requirements, but it’s simply as soon as possible.”

The PRC will also have the authority to initiate system reviews related to police conduct or emerging trends without the need for a public complaint. These reviews will all be made public.

Teddy Manywounds is the Justice and Public Safety Director for G4 Stoney Nakoda Tsuut’ina First Nation. Manywounds was consulted in the development of the PRC. 

“I think it is extremely important when we look at the landscape of delivery of public safety, we also look at the landscape of confidence we are building in our community.” Manywounds said. “I think the communities that we represent and the voices that we hear all need to have a repository, so we can not only continue building the confidence but maintain the confidence of our service and of the public that we serve.”

“It has been my great honour as a First Nation and Indigenous person to be included in the conversation so we can also accurately represent those voices and hear those voices and the concerns that are constantly challenging us within First Nations and Indigenous communities both urban and on reserve. I know this has been a huge undertaking, a long-term approach with a lot of really effective engagement being done both in Indigenous, First Nations, Métis communities but in all communities because at the end of the day when we build confidence collectively we are able to accurately and confidently deliver the service that all Albertans need.”