2020-2021 Six Nations Police Commission
Steve Williams – Chairperson – Community Member
Alisha Anderson – Vice-Chairperson – Community Member
Norma General Lickers- Elder/Advisor
Janice Burning – Community Member
Melba Thomas – Six Nations Elected Council Representative
Nathan Wright – Six Nations Elected Council Representative
Phil Monture – Community Member
2021-2022 Six Nations Police Commission
Steve Williams – Chairperson/Community Representative
Alisha Anderson – Vice Chairperson/Community Representative
Janice Burning – Community Representative
Dayle Bomberry – Community Representative
Norma General-Lickers – Community Representative
Phil Monture – Community Representative
MelbaThomas – Six Nations Elected Council Representative
Nathan Wright – Six Nations Elected Council Representative
Steve, Six Nations Police Commission Chair
Steve is the chair of the Six Nations Police Commission. His role is to chair of meetings, liaison with Police Service, Commission, the Six Nations Council, and community. He has been on the Commission for 18 years, first as a Commission member and then as the Commission Chairperson for the past 10 years. Steve also brings knowledge and experience, as he also sits on nine (9) other boards in the community. He brings to the Commission Chair role a wealth of community and corporate knowledge and involvement.
His goal is simply to make a difference in the community. As a Commission Chair, he values individual integrity, trust, and respect for people. He frequently discusses with the Chief of Police, other community support agencies and external organizations about policing and community issues. These are working relationships, and we talk on a regular basis on the issues that need to go to the Commission.
Many issues come forward to the Chair of the Commission, such as complaints, monthly reports as well as confidential court proceedings are examples. As a Commission and Chair, we look at an issue with an open mind and make decisions together. We expect Commission members to have their opinions and to speak to community issues.
The past few years under the covid pandemic changed how the commission does its work, for example, meetings were online. There are very good people on the Commission, and we have been very fortunate because being on the Commission is more than just governance. The people who sit on the Commission also want to make a difference, they look at the big picture, they come from our community and support the Six Nations Police Service just like community people who have come out to meetings to support the service and tell us that they want us to do our policing job.
Over the years, the work of the Commission has transformed the Service from a two police officer service into the first stand alone First Nations Police Service of 38 Constables. The Chair and Commission continually advance the interests of the Service by providing the rules and foundation for recruiting, hiring, and training police officers and managing the Service.
He says the community is changing and grown significantly so we need more police officers, the service and building would need to double in size. The Six Nations Police Service now have new drug units, which is a problem in all communities not just here and it has been very successful, over the last 10 years.
He is proud to say the new officers coming from the police college with 98% averages are from and working in our community. These officers are making a difference in the community.
We are fortunate that, we have a lot of the policing infrastructure in place here at Six Nations, for example, highly trained officers that can offer training support to other communities. We all need to show more respect, because the Six Nations Police officers are doing this job on behalf of the community, showing appreciation, thanking them, saying hello, being supportive, and telling them they doing a good job is important.
He thinks the Service would benefit from more civilian staff and needs to address retiring officers and civilians. We have the issues between the federal and provincial organizations and governments, but he recognizes that Six Nations is a different policing context. In his role, he is involved with external organizations to ensure and voice issues that affect not just Six Nations but other First Nations police services.
He believes the Six Nations Police is now in a position where we have the experience and expertise in policing areas, such as accidents re-enactments, and water patrols. We are able to do investigations from start to finish, we have expert people, trainers, and we are building on these where our police officers will be involved in every aspect of the investigations.
As the Chair of the Commission, he reinforces that there are policies, and we need to follow them. There are very serious and difficult policing issues to deal with. We must work together, we all have responsibilities, and everyone can play a role in providing a safe community.