About Us

The Alberta Association of Police Governance (AAPG) was incorporated under Alberta’s Societies Act in 2003.

The AAPG is an association of police commissions and RCMP policing committees created pursuant to Alberta’s Police Act.

The organization exists to support excellence in civilian governance of police services in Alberta. The AAPG also acts as a resource for government, providing input into the development of policing-related law and policy.

Once a year the AAPG provides a forum for its members to come together with other stakeholders from across the province to share information and ideas on best practices in police governance and oversight.

AAPG Guiding Principles

The AAPG will be guided in its policy formulation by the following principles:

  1. All police oversight bodies in Alberta are entitled to access to information and resources that will permit them to fulfill their legislated responsibilities;
  2. Every police service providing municipal or local policing should be held accountable through civilian governance and oversight by citizen members of the community served;
  3. Civilian governance of police, when working optimally, creates a buffer between politics and policing;
  4. With the exception of allegations of police wrongdoing designated by the Director of Law Enforcement for investigation by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, police services should be permitted to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by their own members as long as those investigations are subject to independent civilian review and as long as the commanding officer is directly accountable to the community served;
  5. Alberta must continually review the distribution of resources for policing in order to eliminate redundancies, increase efficiencies, improve service delivery and enhance public safety;
  6. In so far as the work of local police services is determined not just by local priorities but also by legislation, government policy and changes to the common law, all levels of government must share the cost of local policing in accordance with the impact each level of government has on the use of local policing resources;
  7. Crime-prevention through social policy is an essential part of any public safety program.