TORONTO – The Office of the Independent Police Review Director welcomes its new Interim Independent Police Review Director, Sylvana Capogreco, effective April 1, 2019.
Ms. Capogreco, who served as senior counsel and then deputy director to the Independent Police Review Director, has a distinguished career as an experienced prosecutor in Ontario.
In 2004 Ms. Capogreco and her team were responsible for the first street gang prosecution in Toronto involving the arrest of 35 individuals following a multi-jurisdictional investigation. She has worked as a Deputy Crown in Scarborough and completed a number of other projects for the Ministry of the Attorney General during her career.
Ms. Capogreco succeeds Gerry McNeilly who was Ontario’s first Independent Police Review Director and whose second term ends on March 31, 2019.
Mr. McNeilly set up the office in 2009 and served two terms as the province’s Independent Police Review Director.
Prior to becoming the agency’s founding director, Mr. McNeilly served as Executive Director for Legal Aid Manitoba for nine years and was the Chair responsible for setting up the Board of Inquiry for the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.
Under Mr. McNeilly’s leadership, the agency released five systemic review reports on policing issues that impact the public interest, the most recent being a review on police strip searches in Ontario, as well as the report on the Thunder Bay Police Service, Broken Trust: Indigenous People and the Thunder Bay Police Service.
“The Office of the Independent Police Review Director welcomes Sylvana Capogreco as its new interim director,” said Mr. McNeilly. “Having provided her significant legal expertise as deputy director and senior counsel, Ms. Capogreco brings extensive knowledge of the organization as well as continuity, which will position the organization well as it prepares for any new legislative changes.”
