Call For More Data and Action on Previous Recommendations
By 250 News
Wednesday, November 10, 2010 12:53 PM
Prince George, B.C. – With Linda Bush and Delores Young sitting in the audience, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association was preaching to the converted as it told a Prince George audience how self investigation by police, doesn’t work.
Linda is the mother of Ian Bush who was shot to death by RCMP constable Paul Koester, in the Houston detachment in October of 2005. Delores Young is the mother of Kevin St. Arnaud who was shot to death by Constable Ryan Sheremetta in a soccer field in Vanderhoof in December of 2004.
The report, authored by David MacAlister, an Associate Professor at SFU’s School of Criminology, examines some of the issues behind the fact that B.C. has more in custody deaths than the rest of Canada.
MacAlister says there was difficulty in gathering the data as the police forces across the country are not always willing to either share that information or have a data base that would show the collection of such information.
The information gathered shows 267 people have died in police custody between 1992 and 2007. MacAlister says that works out to 1 death every three weeks. The data also shows 91% were male.
While noting the alarming number of deaths in B.C., MacAlister cautions against comparing jurisdictions. While the Ontario data would indicate much lower police custody deaths, the information from that province did not include all deaths in which police were involved, so MacAlister says it can be expected the numbers in Ontario would be higher than the 113 reported from ’92 to 2007.
The real issue is the practice of police investigating themselves. Now, other police agencies investigate police “I still see this as a police investigating police approach and not the type of model we should see in B.C.”
In England and Wales, all in custody deaths are investigated by a civilian agency. Two recent reports into in custody deaths have called for a move to an independent investigative process. “We can learn from England’s independent complaints experience, “ says MacAlister “We don’t even have to go outside the country, in Ontario, the special investigations unit investigates all complaints against police. Although there have been some complaints about the SIU, I think there is a lot of good being done .”
He says there is no question, B.C. must move to an independent investigative service, and while the province talked about it a year ago, there is still no sign of it, what it should look like, the mandate, how investigators will be recruited, public consultation, budget for the agency, “all of those are issues people of British Columbia will probably have a say and they haven’t been asked, I think one day we will just wake up and an independent investigative unit will have been foisted upon us, and we should have a say.”
MacAlister also recommends Crown Council from outside the jurisdiction be the ones to make a decision about the possibility of charges being laid because local Crown is in daily contact with local police agencies.
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Posted by: Andyfreeze on November 10 2010 3:05 PM
Ah, Mr. MacAlister, the practice has been that for many yrs now.