Weekend Pizza Hut shooting prompts questions about police information sharing processes

After a weekend shooting that seriously injured a Pizza Hut employee in Woodcroft, some Edmontonians are asking why it took police so long to publicly release details about the incident.

According to the Edmonton Police Service, a male entered the Westmount Shopping Centre restaurant around 12:30 a.m. Sunday and shot the 55-year-old employee, who was rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries.

The first official media release about the shooting was not shared until Monday morning. A suspect description, based on surveillance footage from the restaurant, was not widely released by EPS until 7 p.m. that day.

As of publication, investigators are still looking to identify the gunman.

For Coun. Michael Janz, representing Ward papastew, that timeline gap is concerning, especially since police were still searching for the suspect.

"Others could've been at risk," Janz told reporters at city hall Tuesday. "I mean, I don't want to evoke the Nova Scotia shooting, but there were concerns with to what extent are the police being transparent with the public.

"That's not a healthy divide," he added. "We don't want an us versus them [situation]. We all want to be in on this together. Other people may have tips and ways to help."

Police Chief Dale McFee said officers assess what details can be released about active investigations on a case-by-case basis.

"Obviously, we want to release what we can as much as we can so the public knows," he said at a media availability where the province announced it is mandating the use of officer-worn body cameras.

"Certainly, when we feel there's broader public danger in the particular area, we will release more," McFee added. "Right now, I think what we have had the ability to release, we have, and we will continue to evaluate that as the investigation goes on."

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McFee says police understand the impact traumatic incidents like Sunday's shooting can have on a community, but officers need to balance what can be shared publicly with ongoing investigation requirements.

"We obviously don't want to jeopardize the investigation, which is actually getting the person responsible for it in custody and held accountable," Edmonton's top cop said.

'TENDENCY TOWARDS TOTAL SILENCE'

For Janz, this serves as another example of the need for better accountability mechanisms for Alberta police services.

"Look at their social media," Janz said. "They put out releases on social media on weird things when it serves them."

"Something as serious as a shooting, where there's a suspect on the loose, or something as serious when there's [an instance of police] brutality that we are learning about on Reddit, why are the police not coming forward with that?" he asked.

Criminology professor Temitope Oriola says police services walk "a very fine line" when it comes to deciding what to release and when especially as they balance privacy rules and operational requirements.

"Keeping quiet about one incident or another is not particularly helpful," Oriola said. "In part, because it creates a vacuum and people will fill that vacuum with all kinds of misinformation."

"It's imperative they get ahead of those kinds of incidents and strategically share information," he added.

When compared with other jurisdictions around the world, Oriola says Canadian police services have work to do when it comes to transparency and the speed at which information is provided to citizens.

"Public expectation is around disclosure rather than withholding information," he explained. "The tendency towards total silence is not helpful."

Prior to 2017, media and stakeholders were able to listen to EPS scanner radios, which offered some level of accountability and faster information flow in critical incidents. Since then, EPS has switched to encrypted radios, which officials say protects officer and civilian privacy.

The Calgary Police Service provides media access to its encrypted systems.

Both Janz and Oriola believe provincial standards should be set to ensure common expectations of when information should be released.

"It's entirely left to them [police services] how they go about this," Oriola said.

Janz also believes the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), which oversees police incidents involving serious injury or death, needs more resources to provide public confidence and closure to victims and their loved ones.

"[The province] needs to be funding ASIRT so that cases can be cleared in a much, much quicker fashion," Janz said. "That protects good police officers and holds bad police officers accountable."

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Alison MacKinnon and Alex Antoneshyn