Several recent incidents have highlighted the thorny subject of police investigating police, including the case of Robert Dziekanski, who died at the Vancouver Airport in 2007 after being hit with an RCMP Taser, and that of Ian Bush, shot and killed by a
The problem with any police force investigating itself is that their conclusions are always going to be brushed with suspicion, unless you throw your officers to the wolves. Investigating oneself is a no-win situation.
An SIU for the RCMP is long overdue. This would allow the public to know that an independent body with oversight looked into the matter and found the allegation to be either founded or unfounded. Also, the RCMP can drop this silly "We can't comment on an ongoing investigation" line and throw up some serious defence.
In BC, when one municipal force has a problem, they invite in another municipality to review and investigate. It's definately not perfect because it's all still behind the blue curtain but it's better than nothing.
What frightned me the most with this was this:
He told reporters the force does not track investigations against its own and has no understanding of the scope of the problem. "There is currently no national, centralized co-ordination of member investigations," he said. "That means that no member of the RCMP, including the RCMP commissioner, can tell you how many criminal investigations have been undertaken into its own members. "More serious is that no one can tell you how many members have been investigated for serious injury, sexual assault or death nor can they identify how many charges have been laid against their members nor what the outcome was."
I can't believe that any organization that large could have that kind of "head in the sand" attitude. Either their grossly missmanaged or shoing the same secrecy that got them into the trouble their in now.
Their are the ones that will never admit to mistakes or misdeeds and believe they have all the answers ..... The common man is a fool in their eyes, someone that they can lie to with out recourse .......... how dare you not believe everything I tell you........Duh of course cops should not investigate other cops .......its a political old boys club.............
An SIU for the RCMP is long overdue. This would allow the public to know that an independent body with oversight looked into the matter and found the allegation to be either founded or unfounded. Also, the RCMP can drop this silly "We can't comment on an ongoing investigation" line and throw up some serious defence.
This is really another one of those "Duh" reports.
yup, really makes you wonder why it takes so long
for the blindingly obvious.
What frightned me the most with this was this:
He told reporters the force does not track investigations against its own and has no understanding of the scope of the problem.
"There is currently no national, centralized co-ordination of member investigations," he said. "That means that no member of the RCMP, including the RCMP commissioner, can tell you how many criminal investigations have been undertaken into its own members.
"More serious is that no one can tell you how many members have been investigated for serious injury, sexual assault or death nor can they identify how many charges have been laid against their members nor what the outcome was."
I can't believe that any organization that large could have that kind of "head in the sand" attitude. Either their grossly missmanaged or shoing the same secrecy that got them into the trouble their in now.