On October 25th, 2008, Orion Hutchinson was killed when his motorcycle was struck by a driver who later blew over the legal limit.  One would expect that driver to be immediately charged with impaired and dangerous driving causing death, but instead, it took the Delta Police over 7 months to recommend charges and another 6 months for the Criminal Justice Branch to make a decision.

On Tuesday, December 1st, the Criminal Justice Branch ignored the recommendations of the Delta Police and chose not to charge the driver, RCMP Corporal Benjamin “Monty” Robinson, with impaired and dangerous driving causing death.  Without explanation, the CJB chose only to charge Cpl Robinson with obstruction.  The public has been advised that the exceptional delay and lack of charges has nothing to do with the fact that the driver responsible for the death of Orion Hutchinson is a police officer.  This is Cpl Robinson’s second pass, as he also avoided trial for his involvement in the death of Robert Dziekanski.

The case is yet another example of a police officer involved in a death not facing charges related to the death.  It should be noted that never, in the history of B.C. has a police officer faced a criminal charge as a result of killing someone while on duty. It appears that the rule may hold true for killing someone while off duty as well. In far too many cases, including Dziekanski, Boyd, Bush, St. Arnaud and countless others the CJB has acted as judge and jury, deciding on which evidence would likely be preferred by a judge and invariably preferring the police version of events.  If the CJB found Cpl Robinson guilty and pronounced judgment without trial, there would be an uproar.  But refusing to try a police officer for manslaughter has not resulted in a commensurate public outcry.

BC’s motorcycle community is looking to change that.  You can join them in a rally at 12:00 noon on December 8th at the Surrey Provincial Courthouse. Everyone is encouraged to attend and motorcyclist are encouraged to wear their jackets.  Further details are below from a Facebook posting.

Also, check out the article in the Province and Gary Mason’s article in the Globe and Mail.

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Tags: RCMP
Posted in The Police Blog | | 3 Comments »

RCMP Commissioner William Elliott will be seeking changes to the RCMP Act that will broaden disciplinary options and make it easier to dismiss officers for gross misconduct.  Elliott argues that without legislative change, disciplinary options in serious offenses are overly lenient and often take years to resolve.

The BCCLA has witnessed how long it can take for investigations to take place.  Most of the complaints the BCCLA makes are unresolved for years.  One of the main problems reported to the BCCLA about the police complaint process is that if officers are found at fault, disciplinary measures are inadequate.  If Commissioner Elliott can change the process so that discipline does occur when officers are found to have broken their code of conduct, this would be a huge improvement to the system.

Discipline aside, it’s important to note that in many of the most egregious cases, the RCMP has found no fault at all: Ian Bush, Kevin St. Arnaud, Clayton Willey, and Robert Dziekanski, and that in the history of British Columbia, not a single police officer has faced a criminal charge arising from a police-involved death. What good are better sanctions if you can’t see any problems in the first place?

Check out the story in the Vancouver Sun.

Tags: Creditable Conduct, Police complaints, RCMP
Posted in The Police Blog | | No Comments »

When elements of a death in police custody are caught on video, the RCMP consistently exploits the victim’s family in order to suppress the video. Releasing the video to the public, according to the RCMP, would upset the family. Below are a few examples where the family has had to fight the RCMP to have the video released.

After Robert Dziekanski died in the custody of the Richmond RCMP, the RCMP seized Paul Pritchard’s video. Cpl. Dale Carr publicly attacked Paul Pritchard’s motives to release the video to the public on the grounds that it would upset Mr. Dziekanski’s mother, Zofia Cisowski. Mr. Pritchard had to file a lawsuit to have his property returned. He released the video to the public with Ms. Cisowski’s permission.

A writer recently discovered the RCMP had video footage of Clayton Alvin Willey’s arrest in 2002. Mr. Willey died a few hours later. Despite a notarised release from the family, the RCMP refused to release footage citing privacy concerns. The RCMP backed down after the BCCLA and others demanded the family’s request to release the footage be honoured.

This week RCMP lawyer Ellen Roberts could not prevent the release of video footage of Robert Knipstrom’s arrest. Counsel for the coroner’s office argued for the release of the video on the grounds that the family was not opposed to its release. Once again, the only entity opposed to publication was the RCMP.

It is appaling that the RCMP resorts to such exploitation to avoid accountability. It is also appalling that the BCCLA needs to point this out to the RCMP. Yet, there is little that makes sense in a system where the agency responsible for the death of a person is also tasked to investigate its own culpability. The RCMP has recognised that they face a crisis of public confidence, yet one of the main arguments against the creation of an independent unit to investigate in-custody deaths is that only the police can investigate crimes. The RCMP ought to recognise that public confidence only comes when the RCMP show us they are doing a good job, not simply when they tell us they are doing a good job.

The public, like any good investigator, wants to view the evidence. Public servants should not need to be reminded who it is they serve.

Tags: Death In Custody, RCMP, Robert Dziekanski, Transparency
Posted in The Police Blog | | 1 Comment »

A law like this is what the BCCLA has been working towards for years.  Now’s the time to contact your member of parliament to support Ian’s law, a private member’s bill put forward by MP Nathan Cullen.

Tags: RCMP, Transparency
Posted in The Police Blog | | No Comments »

In 2007, Paul Boyd was shot and killed by a Vancouver Police officer.  Officers responded to a 911 call concerning a man carrying a potentially dangerous weapon.  Upon arrival, one officer shot Mr. Boyd eight times after he allegedly attacked two officers with a chain. The Criminal Justice Branch has just announced that it will not be advancing any criminal charges. In a report attached to the decision, the CJB advises that:

• only one officer fired on Mr. Boyd, no other police officers fired a shot;
• some attending police officers did not unholster their firearms;
• the shooting officer fired at least four shots after a direction had been given to the attending officers to “hold their fire”;
• Mr. Boyd was hit by at least four bullets and possibly five bullets after he was completely disarmed, including the final bullet that hit Mr. Boyd in the head when Mr. Boyd was crawling;
• the shooting officer said he believed Mr. Boyd was wearing body armour, and that Mr. Boyd was standing almost vertical and not crawling when he shot Mr. Boyd in the head;
• the shooting officer said he recalled shooting four bullets, but actually fired nine.

The investigation was not conducted by an independent investigative body but, as is customary in BC, by the VPD itself. It took two years of investigation to come to the decision that there is no need for a trial. This result is not surprising. A criminal charge arising from a police-involved death would have been the first in BC history. However is astonishing that the CJB argued that a criminal conviction was ‘not possible’ on the evidence even though the case of such complexity that it took two years to come to a decision. Instead of referring this serious set of allegations to the truth finding process of trial, the CJB acted as judge and jury by itself.

Unlike in BC, where a police force investigates itself after a death in custody, the provinces of Ontario and Manitoba have independent agencies called Special Investigation Units to investigate potentially criminal police action. The case of Mr. Boyd shows clearly the need for an independent investigative body in BC. It is not surprising that the public has little confidence in the police investigating themselves when police-involved homicides has never gone to trial in BC.

The BCCLA will continue to campaign for reform.  The circumstances of Mr. Boyd’s tragic death should not be kept secret and any decision regarding criminal responsibility should be made in court, and in public, not in private by the CJB.

Tags: BCCLA Police Complaints, Death In Custody, Transparency, VPD
Posted in The Police Blog | | 1 Comment »

For all the problems with police and government accountability in Canada, we look in good light today after Maher Arar’s civil lawsuit in the United States was dismissed over concern that the case would reveal state secrets.  This effectively removes accountability for American police and spy agencies so long as state secrets are involved.  Consequently, the rule of law, which holds that no one is above the law, suffers a substantive blow with this decision.  Mr. Arar will now apply to have the case heard by the US Supreme Court.

The press release from the Center for Constitutional Rights, which acted as counsel for Mr. Arar, is below.

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Tags: International
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A video purported to be taken on October 9, 2009 surfaced on YouTube showing the apprehension of two men by the Abbotsford police department (APD).  The nearly five minute video shows officers using excessive force while the two suspects are on the ground.

The video does not have audio and begins with one suspect already on the ground and the other appearing to be  thrown to the ground from his vehicle.  Over the next three minutes of the footage officers proceed to focus on one of the suspects kicking him on the head and ribs, and applying pressure to the back, the head and the hands by standing or kneeling on them.  The suspects through most of the video appear to be lying still on the ground, occasionally looking up or slightly adjusting their body position.  Most of the physical force by the officers would follow after these slight movements.

The suspects were not actively resisting and their actions through the course of the arrest were neither threatening nor displayed an attempt at escape.  From the portion of the video available on the Internet, the Abbotsford police appear to have used excessive force.

The video can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WheWb7G5NPs

Posted in The Police Blog | | 1 Comment »

Hearings will be held to investigate whether three officers from Sûreté du Québec, Quebec’s provincial police force, attempted to incite violence during the Montebello protests.  The three officers, masked and wielding a rock, were outed when their combat boots matched the police officers’ that took them down.  That, and the fact that the officers moved towards police for protection when a union leader confronted the protesters and told them to put down the rock.  No protester would seek police protection from a middle-aged unionist in a suit.

Check out the CBC story.

Check out the original CBC story with links to the video.

Tags: Police complaints, Sûreté du Québec, Transparency
Posted in The Police Blog | | No Comments »

After a youtube video surfaced showing a student at Toronto’s Northern Secondary School being detained for resisting his detention, a protest was held last week regarding police presence in schools.

Check out the story.

In a wonderful piece of journalism, the National Post reported that the protest was a failure because only a fraction of students showed up to the protest, less than 10% of the 1800-student school, thereby indicating that the students support the police presence in their school.  They even interviewed a couple students to support this claim.  Look for the National Post to continue reporting on the end of student indifference with even more ironic use of statistical analyses in the coming days.

Tags: Freedom of Expression, Police complaints
Posted in The Police Blog | | No Comments »

The Vancouver Police Union initiated a survey to purportedly test public claims that police officers support Insite, the safe-injection site operating in the Downtown Eastiside.  Results show that most officers don’t support the program.  53% believe it has contributed to the deterioration of the neighbourhood.

If there has been misrepresentation of police officers’ views, hats off to the union for clarifying this.  Police officers ought to be free to praise, criticise or remain silent about Insite.  But we need to ensure police officers are not attempting to influence public policy.  The police can inform public policy, but too often they attempt to dictate policy.  It is a fine line.

Tags: Freedom of Expression
Posted in The Police Blog | | 2 Comments »