The Safe Harbour Outreach Project and St. John’s Status of Women Council have ended their official SHOP Liaison Officer partnership with the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary—stating the partnership has not been reciprocal.
SHOP says sex workers tell them they are continuing to experience judgement, stigma and a lack of safety in their interactions with RNC, and say things need to change.
In a release issued on Monday SHOP says it has “initiated the majority” of partnership connections with the RNC, including requesting meetings, training sessions and creating opportunities for more collaboration as well as sharing recommendations and what they call evidence-based research and testimony from sex workers.
“Despite all this time and effort, we have not seen useful outcomes or adequate engagement
from the RNC in this partnership. Our relationship is not reciprocal, we continue to have
some phone calls and emails to liaison officers go unreturned, and members of our
community continue to feel stigmatized and devalued by the police. Simply put, the RNC
has not done the work to rebuild trust with our community and this is not a partnership.”
They say they have not seen “useful outcomes or adequate engagement from the RNC in this partnership.”
SHOP says despite the Constabulary indicating that it wants to build trust with vulnerable communities, their six-year history of trying to engage the RNC says otherwise.
They say they remain open to working collaboratively with the RNC in future.
