Police Investigating Police Needs New Rules

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 08:00 AM

Ottawa, Ont. - It has been nearly two years since the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP (CPC) began it’s investigation into the RCMP investigating RCMP.

After reviewing 28 randomly selected cases that involved serious injury or death throughout Canada between April 1, 2002 and March 31, 2007, the Commission concludes:

· ‘Police investigating Police’ from the same force on cases involving death, serious injury or sexual assault does not create confidence in the transparency and integrity of an investigation and its outcomes

· The RCMP’s approach to internal investigations is flawed and inconsistent

· No national ‘gold standard’ exists for internal investigations; new model proposed and

· No instances of actual bias by individual members were found in the 28 RCMP investigations reviewed

The 312 page report rejects the current RCMP policy that investigations of its members be handled like any other investigation.

The report says police are held to higher account by the very nature of the work they do, “It is therefore the CPC’s contention that criminal investigations into RCMP members should not be treated procedurally the same as any other criminal investigation.”

While it found the conduct of individual RCMP investigators was highly professional and appropriate in all 28 cases, there were issues with timeliness of investigations (one case was still being investigated 28 months after the incident) and line management.

· Twenty five percent of the primary investigators assigned to cases identified themselves as personally knowing the subject member.

· A lone investigator was assigned in 60 % of the cases reviewed.

· There was a significant disparity in the qualifications of the investigators assigned to member investigations.

The report says that in both scenarios, there is at least a perceived risk of bias or intimidation, especially where the investigator is of a lower rank than the member being investigated.

The report makes 14 recommendations including:

• Creation of a National RCMP Member Investigation Registrar to coordinate both the development of national policy and the handling of member investigations. This would also address the lack of data collection or monitoring of member investigations the Commission for Public Complaints (CPC) found during this review.

• All member investigations involving death should be referred to an external police force or provincial criminal investigation body. There should be no RCMP involvement in the process. A CPC observer should also be present to ensure transparency.

• The process for all member investigations involving serious injury or sexual assault should be jointly determined by CPC and the National RCMP Member Investigation Registrar to:

o Refer the investigation to external police force or provincial body; or

o Deploy an RCMP HQ Critical Incident Member Investigation Team; and

o Ensure a CPC observer is embedded in the investigation.

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Posted on Tuesday, August 11, 2009 08:00 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: BCRacer on August 11 2009 11:00 AM

Some good thoughts and suggestions here..an independent observer is probably a good idea. This should help keep those "very few", who are a little bias ,honest, and all those who are honest and unbias will be able to breath knowing their integrity is intact...
I think the commision did a fair appraisal

Posted by: thereasonableman on August 11 2009 12:24 PM

I think the commission did a whitewash of the review, but made the right recommendations nonetheless.

Kennedy's whitewash of the poor, sloppy, "hey brother you can count on me to look out for you" investigations makes the suggestions of change much less compelling, however, which leaves them wide open to reject it and carry on as usual.

There should be an entity that reports directly to the Crown Counsel's office, that is separate and distinct from the ranks of regular policing. Either civilians or non-commissioned officers, specially tasked to internal investigations only. They would not serve or mix with regular officers. They would not answer to, nor be under the authority of any officer of any rank.

Then, you will come much closer to fair, unbiased investigations.

Of course, everybody including Mr. Kennedy already knows this. They are still playing "dazed and confused".

Posted by: kidar on August 11 2009 7:24 PM

I believe and have said it for many years that "police" should be not be investigating themselves. I would go one further than the "thereasonableman" and suggest that on the more serious internal/criminal matters that a special prosecutor be appointed because the crown counsel works closely with the police (RCMP and Municipal police forces). Some good recommendations and the proof will be if the police follow through with them.

Posted by: supertech on August 11 2009 7:46 PM

We should have the Mexican police investigate the RCMP. Maybe I'll ask Stephen to bring it up at the next 'amigo' meeting.