Dear Ms. Kuehn and members of the African Descent VPD Advisory Committee,

We write this letter to offer our apology for how we conducted our June 2023 board meeting. It was not our intention to act in a manner that was unacceptable, rude or disrespectful, but we recognize this was the impact of our actions. We apologize. We understand there were also other instances where we did not demonstrate our willingness to understand your concerns and work in ways that clearly show our commitment to collaboration. We wish to be clear that the Board respects you all for your personal and professional contributions and diligent work to improve many organizations in our community. Also know that we were grateful and appreciative when you agreed more than two years ago to dedicate your time and talent to improving community-police relations in Vancouver. We are saddened we left you feeling otherwise, and we hope there is still an opportunity to repair our relationship.

Recently, the Board’s Vice-Chair, Frank Chong, sat down with Sadie to gain a better understanding of the perspective of the Advisory Committee, so that we may learn from this situation. We understand it was not a single incident that led to your decision but a series of mistakes made in our handling of the return of school liaison officers in 2023-including not hearing your full presentation at our meeting last June. We understand that the content and timing of our response to subsequent correspondence from the Advisory Committee was interpreted as rude and disrespectful. For this, we are truly sorry and apologize to you.

We are committed to learning from our mistakes and improving as a Board. We recognize that our work of civilian oversight of police and how policing priorities are set must be more proactive and transparent with communities in Vancouver. The Board recently made the decision to form a standing Stakeholder Engagement and Outreach Committee that opens up our processes and intends to seek input and feedback on board decisions and initiatives, in order to improve our accountability to the broader public. We are developing a preliminary draft of the committee’s terms of reference and will share a copy before they are finalized. While we recognize that you may be hesitant to continue any engagement with the VPD and Board, we hope you will reconsider.