Prince George, B.C.- Skeena-Bulkley Valley M.P. Nathan Cullen says he is getting positive feedback in the wake of his introduction of a private members bill that would stop the practice of police investigating police. He is advocating a civilian oversight team to investigate those serious incidents in which RCMP are involved.

Speaking on the Meisner program this morning on CFISFM, Cullen says he received a call last night from the head of the RCMP and the Minister in charge, who have been long time opponents of this saying “Well, the public mood is certainly there, I’m hearing from a lot of officers that maybe it’s time to have civilian oversight of the Force.”

Cullen says police are asked to do an impossible job, a dangerous one “Public confidence is absolutely essential to do it.” He says the investigative system will only be as good as the information it is given, and the Chicago model seems to work “They have set up a very successful program in Chicago where they have been able to overcome that. It’s a bit of tough love sometimes, you have to go in and say everything is handed over regardless and if not, these are the consequences. If you do it right, its going to work for the public, it’s going to work for the RCMP, its going to create a better system.”

With the controversy that remains over the Ian Bush case where the 22 year old was shot in the back of the head during a  fight with an officer at the Houston detachment, the conflicting testimony of officers in the Kevin St. Arnaud shooting in Vanderhoof, and the death of Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver airport,  Cullen says the current system in Canada doesn’t serve anybody “It doesn’t serve the public, it doesn’t help the police, and we’ve got to do better.”

Cullen says the time has come for change, “We’re talking to the Government right now and saying lets work with this, are we ready to have true public oversight? The fact that the Auditor General of Canada has agreed with this, I mean the list is growing pretty long on one side, and very short on the other, so with some cool heads here we can prevail and we can get some real good change happening in the country for our Force.”