The Southern Chiefs’ Organization’s Community Safety and Policing Project supports SCO member Nations by advocating for equitable investments in meaningful, community-driven safety solutions through self-determined policing options and improving immediate safety responses.
Read our latest report, Anishinaabe and Dakota Experiences of Protecting Their Nations: A Report on SCO’s Justice and Community Safety Gathering. The report is based on the Justice and Community Safety Gathering hosted by SCO in Winnipeg, Treaty One Territory.
You will hear directly from SCO citizens, Elders, Chiefs, Youth Chiefs, and justice workers on their experiences, challenges, and priorities for protecting their Nations.
- Self-Determined Policing
- Advocacy – Working with the governments of Canada and Manitoba to ensure the voices and perspectives of SCO member Nations are heard and included in the process of making decisions related to community safety
- Systemic Change – Advocating with Canada for equitable funding for SCO member Nations under the federal First Nations and Inuit Policing Program for community safety services that meet the needs of First Nations
- Strategic Action – Ensuring SCO member Nations are strategically positioned to access equitable funding to ensure self-determined community safety and policing services
- Immediate Safety Responses
- Increase safety in SCO member Nations – SCO Regional First Nation Safety Officer (FNSO) Team was proposed to funders for 2025 to support member Nations who request it; SCO continues to work towards this effort
- Support capacity growth in member Nation FNSO Programs
- Mobile Crisis Team and Evacuation support
Some of the ways SCO can practically support member Nations are:
- Concerns with policing services and policing and community safety options
- FNSO program support and advice
- Bylaw enforceability
- Accessing FNSO training
Need help with a policing issue?
If you have had an interaction with a police officer or officers that you feel was inappropriate, illegal, or otherwise unsafe, there are steps you can take.
- Contact the police service leadership directly to make a complaint or request a review. The contact information for police agencies responsible for SCO member Nations is attached here.
- Make a complaint to the Manitoba Law Enforcement Review Agency.
- Raise your concerns to Manitoba Justice, the provincial department responsible for policing in Manitoba.
- If the officer is a member of the RCMP, you can make a complaint to the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission.
- For municipal police service concerns, you can also make a complaint through the Manitoba Ombudsman Office, although they will ask you to try the local complaints process first.
If you require assistance with other Government Programs or Services, visit our Where to Get Help webpage here.
Contact the Community Safety and Policing Project:
Anyone who has questions or would like to request support from SCO for community safety and policing can contact Leanne.Gardiner@scoinc.mb.ca.
Resources
SCO Anishinaabe and Dakota Experiences of Protecting Their Nations Report 2025
SCO First Nation Experiences of Racism in Policing Survey Report 2021