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The London police board held a rare special summer meeting Friday, but bulk of the public meeting was held behind closed doors, a move that two past board members called “highly unusual.”
The seven-member police board wasn’t scheduled to meet again until September, but the board announced Aug. 8 on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that a meeting would be held Friday morning.
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The meeting was held virtually, unlike regular board meetings that take place at police headquarters with a virtual option for anyone who can’t make it in-person.
“This is the first time we’ve ever called a special board meeting over the summer,” chair Ali Chahbar said during the brief public portion of the meeting. “We have a couple of items that are of an in-camera nature.”
Closed door sessions, also known as in-camera meetings, are allowed when discussing a range of confidential matters, such as human resources issues or legal advice. Otherwise, the police board meetings must be held in public.
No details about the topics being discussed during the meeting were divulged in the one-page agenda released prior to the meeting. The seven-item list included a verbal update from the chair and new business.
The police board holds monthly public meetings, except during the summer, when board members continue to do work but don’t meet for a public session.
Two former members of the London police board said the timing of the meeting and the decision to hold its entirety in-camera was “highly unusual.”
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Both ex-board members asked not to be identified, because they didn’t want to publicly criticize the civilian body responsible for overseeing policing in the city.
Chahbar later provided a statement on how the Community Safety and Policing Act, the sweeping new law that replaced the 34-year-old Police Services Act on April 1, has defined rules regarding the nature and timing of board meetings.
“While the police board does not typically meet over the summer months, sometimes there are time-sensitive matters that the board needs to consider before the next regularly scheduled meeting. . . . I called this meeting so that the board could advance board business in compliance with our obligations outlined in the CSPA,” Chahbar said.
The board meets again on Sept. 19.
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