Review of BC Police Complaints Process Out

By 250 News

Former Justice Joe Wood's review of  the police complaint process in B.C.'s 11 independent municipal police department has wrapped up with 91 recommendations.

Wood's review included a survey of all sworn members in the municipal departments, an audit of 300 closed complaint files and approximately 150 face-to-face interviews.

Major recommendations include:

• Strengthening the oversight powers of the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC) to ensure that serious complaints are properly investigated and resolved.
• Shifting from the current model where the OPCC oversees a complaint after police have investigated it, to contemporaneous oversight where the OPCC can be involved throughout the handling of a complaint. This would involve the use of new software to track complaints across all municipal police departments.
• Increasing the police complaint commissioner's powers to include the ability to provide advice or direction to a police department during an investigation; the power to issue guidelines that are binding on police; and statutory responsibility to monitor non-lodged or oral complaints (complaints made by a member of the public who does not want to commit
  the complaint to writing).
• Compelling police by law to co-operate both with internal and external investigators, including providing a statement and submitting to an interview. Failure to co-operate would constitute a new category of discreditable conduct under the Code of Professional Conduct regulation.

While the report found the majority of complaints against police were investigated and concluded in a manner tht was both reasonable and appropriate, a random sample audit also showed about one in five complaints were not handled or concluded as well as they could have been.

The report has been presented to Solicitor-General John Les for consideration.  Les says, "Clearly, there are areas that need improvement, including possible changes in legislation."

"We intend to carefully analyze this report and implement recommendations where appropriate."

Meanwhile, the Police Complaint Commissioner, Dirk Ryneveld, has expressed his full support for the recommendations, "I have been strongly advocating reform of the police complaint process, and I am grateful for Mr. Wood's thorough and thoughtful analysis and recommendations."

Other recommendations include a program of mandatory mediation conducted
by trained and independent mediators; a mandatory requirement that all
in-custody and police-related deaths be investigated by an external
municipal department; and development of a new public review process
that allows the commissioner to order a new review of decisions
regarding complaints, short of ordering a full public hearing.

Wood's final recommendation is that a follow-up audit of closed
complaint files be conducted in three years to determine whether the
current model is working.

"It is important to remember that the purpose of this review was not to
pass judgment on the public complaint practices of any particular
municipal police department or to grade those departments in terms of
their handling of such complaints," said Wood. "The purpose was to
improve the overall process. Even though the report does reveal some
shortcomings in the way public complaints of police misconduct are
handled, it would be incorrect to attribute those shortcomings to any
particular department."

Wood's review included conducting an audit of 300 closed complaint
files, approximately 150 face-to-face interviews with a range of
stakeholders, two public surveys, and a survey of all sworn members of
the 11 independent municipal police departments.

Email | Print | Facebook | Twitter | Digg | Del.icio.us