Prince George, B.C.- The Independent Investigations Office  for B.C. had hoped to be up and running by mid 2012, but it doesn’t look like that deadline will be met. 

IIO Director, Richard Rosenthal says he expects the Minister of Justice to make an announcement soon, which will pinpoint the IIO’s official start date.

“We’re in the position where we have 15 investigators in training, we’ve got staff of more than a dozen working in the main office working on policies and procedures and obtaining the tools we need, just doing everything we need to do to start the investigations office from scratch, but we’ve made a lot of progress.”

He says they have hired about 2/3rds of the staff needed to operate (including office staff) and the ratio of civilian investigators to former police members ratio is about one to one. He says the senior investigators are either in place and ready to start special training in August, or on their way here from other provinces. While Rosenthal is not in a position to say when the actual start date might be, Opinion 250 suspects it would be a pretty safe bet to suggest the office would likely be ready to roll by the end of September.

•        The IIO will conduct criminal investigations regarding police-related incidents that result death or serious harm.
•        In comparison, the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner (OPCC), an independent office of the legislature, examines conduct issues in municipal police departments, but does not have a mandate to engage in criminal investigations.
•        Conduct issues involving RCMP are dealt with by the federal Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP.
•        The Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner will have the jurisdiction to investigate incidents or complaints that involve investigative staff from the IIO.
•        The most severe consequence for an officer as a result of an IIO investigation is a criminal charge or charges.
•        The director will have the discretion to hire ex-police officers as investigators, as long as they have not served as police officers in B.C. within the past five years.

No matter what the date for the official “opening” Rosenthal expects the team to be busy “Our mandate is large enough that its not like people will be just sitting in the office waiting for an officer involved shooting or waiting for a bad incident and then going out and investigating. Our mandate doesn’t just cover officer involved shootings, it also covers police related deaths, which could include everything from the use of force resulting in death , to suicide in police custody, to suicides where police responded and there is a potential where an officer’s actions may have had an impact. We’re also involved in looking at off duty incidents where there has been death or serious harm, so impaired driving, domestic violence, any kind of off duty conduct that could result in this harm. So the number of cases we’re anticipating will be significant enough that we expect to respond to cases virtually day one.”

For those who might expect this office to deal with more recent cases, such as the shooting of Angus Mitchell, or the recently revealed video of the shooting of Paul Boyd, Rosenthal says, no, those cases are “historic” and his office will only examine the cases brought forward from the first day the office is officially “active.”

While the office won’t meet his original projected start date of mid 2012, Rosenthal says any extra time will ensure that when the IIO officially opens its doors, it will be ready “It has been a tremendous effort by everyone to get to this point so that on Day One, we can do it right, which is critical. We’re going to have to investigate serious uses of force by police, we’re going to have to investigate off duty conduct that could potentially be serious criminal conduct, and if we’re not ready on Day One to do it right, if we’re not competent on Day One, we are going to pay for it, for years. That’s why this period, this transition period where we are getting ready, is so important.”

So when the Minister announces the official start date, will Rosenthal’s team be ready? “You can always use more time" says Rosenthal, "but there’s a certain balancing act, because it’s also very important that we get to work, that we start taking on these cases. So to me, we have to find that balance between the needs of the public and police to have this office up and operational, and our need to make sure we can be competent from Day One.”