it is a good first step but more needs to be done.
That’s the message from brass at the Belleville Police Service regarding new legislation introduced on Tuesday looking at bail reform.
The new bill, introduced by Federal Justice Minister David Lametti, aims to make it harder for some repeat violent offenders to seek pretrial release by putting the onus on them to prove why they should be granted bail.
Speaking with Quinte News earlier this week, Belleville’s Deputy Police Chief Chris Barry says there was some good in the legislation but ultimately more needed to be done.
“In our view, it didn’t go quite far enough in that we would have liked to have seen something to address the persons or accused persons that are out in our community that are being held for multiple bail violations that have multiple breaches of court orders,” Barry tells Quinte News.
“There was nothing in the legislation that indicated there was any change in approach in dealing with those offenders.”
That message was carried over into Friday’s Police Services Board meeting at City Hall.
Belleville Police Chief Mike Callaghan outlined a series of events back in March where a suspect, whose name was redacted, had been arrested five times in an 11-day span.
“We need to ensure that we’re providing safety for the community because the whole concept, it’s basically they call it getting in at eight and out by eleven. That’s not acceptable,” Chief Callaghan told Quinte News after the meeting.
“When you look at the impact that has on the victims, I think it’s important that the victims’ rights are equally as represented in the bail reform act as the individual who’s being accused.”
