The Edmonton Police Service had such difficulty finding volunteers for a ceremony honouring outgoing chief Dale McFee that it had to pay officers overtime and ask EPS lawyers to participate, according to documents obtained through FOIP.

As McFee ended his tenure as Edmonton police chief to become Alberta’s top bureaucrat, the EPS held a changing of command ceremony on Feb. 21 to mark the transfer of power from McFee to interim co-chiefs Warren Dreichel and Devin Laforce, which was followed by a reception in McFee’s honour. 

The changing of command ceremony is presided over by a guard, or guards, of honour, who lead a ceremonial parade. The Progress Report obtained two overtime forms submitted for honour guard duties in relation to the Feb. 21 ceremony.

Then-Edmonton police chief Dale McFee speaks at a March 2024 news conference with Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis and Mental Health and Addictions Minister Dan Williams in the background. Credit: Alberta Newsroom

One shows a constable was approved for 2.5 hours overtime pay on Feb. 22, and another shows a constable was approved for three hours time in the books on Feb. 25. Their names are redacted, as are the specific hours they worked. 

According to an obtained Feb. 18 email from EPS Corps Sergeant Major Christa Laforce (acting chief Devin Laforce’s wife) of the Chief’s Ceremonial Unit, the change of command ceremony was scheduled to last somewhere between 30 and 40 minutes. 

"I can't say I've ever heard of paying overtime for someone to do honour guard duties," Laura Huey, a sociologist at Western University in London, Ont., who specializes in police culture, told the Report. 

A changing of command ceremony, said Huey, is a "culturally significant policing event," which gives officers "an opportunity to show respect to the outgoing leader, as well as to welcome the incoming leader."

"Not only are police officers present, but respected members of the community, and friends and family of the outgoing and the incoming chief (or chiefs) are invited," she explained, adding that it would be "unusual that officers would not want to serve in some capacity." 

Emails obtained from the morning of the ceremony show a last-minute scramble to find volunteers for the changing of command ceremonial parade, with the head of the Legal and Regulatory Services Division reaching out to three EPS lawyers to participate because not enough officers were attending. 

Around 8 a.m., Megan Hankewich, who served as McFee’s lawyer as recently as last year, emailed fellow EPS lawyers Jeffrey Westman, David Lynass and Andrea Brooks to say that Staff Sgt. Laforce "needs members in dress uniform for the parade this afternoon in the changing of the guard ceremony."

"A bunch of members called in sick," Hankewich wrote. "If you can do it [sic] give me a call!"

Brooks responded about 15 minutes later. "Sorry, I don’t have a dress uniform," she wrote. 

Part of Lynass’s response, which came 15 minutes after Brooks, is redacted. "I won’t be making the trip downtown," reads the part of Lynass’s response that is included. 

A portion of Westman’s answer, which came about two hours later, is also withheld. "Unfortunately, I don’t have a dress uniform, and [redacted]," wrote Westman. 

In an August 2023 article for The Tyee, investigative journalist Charles Rusnell detailed the contents of an issue of the Edmonton Police Association’s internal newsletter he obtained, which Rusnell wrote "reveals serious morale and leadership trust issues."

Addressing EPS leadership, association vice-president Cory Keer complained in the newsletter of a "tired and overworked" membership who have "had enough" with the "constant and never-ending change in your organization," and "nepotism" from the top brass. 

"Your membership isn’t happy with the way you are running things," Keer wrote.

Kerr called on EPS leadership to conduct an Employee Engagement Survey, which hadn’t been done since 2016, "so that every single person in the EPS that sits in a senior management position can become truly aware of how the membership feels about how the EPS is operating and those that operate it."

In November 2023, the EPS conducted its first Employee Engagement Survey since 2016, which asked EPS employees to categorize 99 statements as "often true," "almost always true," "sometimes true, sometimes untrue," "often untrue," and "almost always untrue."

The highest rates of responses categorized as "often untrue" or "almost always untrue" concerned internal communications (39 per cent) and the credibility of EPS leadership (30 per cent). 

Western University’s Huey said the difficulty finding volunteers for the changing of command ceremony likely reflects officers’ dissatisfaction with McFee’s tenure as chief. 

"Rank-and-file officers have few means of expressing their views as to how they feel they've been viewed or treated by command staff. I would suggest this is one of the few safe avenues available for expressing their sentiments," she said. 

The EPS didn’t acknowledge a request for comment for this story.