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

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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
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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
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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
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First it was four shootings in eight days, now it’s five in twelve.  These five shootings, with three fatalities, involve BC police forces.  Four of the five shootings involved RCMP officers.  The RCMP in BC are responsible for more than half of the RCMP’s in-custody deaths, despite accounting for only one third of the RCMP’s forces in Canada.

A man was fatally shot yesterday after a reported 4-day standoff with police in Buick creek, near Fort St. John.

Eugene Knight was fatally shot by Vancouver Police on September 19th.

Bill Gillespie was shot in Chemainus after a traffic stop by North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP.

Surrey RCMP peppered a reportedly stolen car with bullets after the unknown male driver fled a parking lot in Langley, striking a civilian vehicle, a police cruiser and a plainclothes officer.

Rodney Jackson was fatally shot by Hazelton RCMP when officers attended his grandfather’s cabin to arrest him on outstanding warrants.

Beyond the brief information contained in the newspapers, little is known about these incidents.  The BCCLA, the RCMP and BC’s police chiefs are all in agreement that a civilian-led agency needs to investigate police shootings and deaths in custody, although the BCCLA argues that only a civilian-staffed agency can eliminate any perceptions of bias and restore public confidence in the police.

The issue is not whether any of these dead men were good or bad people or whether investigating police officers is somehow an affront to the dignity of their public service.  The issue is about ensuring that when the government uses lethal force against its citizens, a transparent and thorough investigation occurs to ensure that the use of lethal force was justified.

The BCCLA will be filing police complaints for each of the cases, currently the only way the circumstances of police shootings and deaths in custody can be known outside of police circles until a coroner’s inquest takes place, usually years later.

Check out the latest story in The Province.

Tags: BCCLA Police Complaints, Death In Custody, RCMP, Transparency, VPD
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It’s a surprising change of tune, but still out of key: BC’s police chiefs and RCMP management admit that criminal conduct investigations of police officers, such as in-custody deaths, should not be done by the police.  However, the solution they offer is the creation of an investigative team of active police officers led by a civilian.  This is essentially the system that currently exists for the investigation of police complaints by members of the public.  This system has been found to be flawed in both the Frank Paul Inquiry and the audit of that system by a retired judge three years ago.

BC Police are not offering to give up much control.  The idea that adding one civilian to the current model will bring fundamental change is misguided.  The Special Investigations Unit in Ontario, which is a model much closer to what BC needs, was found in an audit by the Ombudsman of Ontario to be a “muzzled watchdog” starved of resources and loyal to “police culture”.  A shift in thinking, moving away from the reliance on active or former police officers as investigators, is paramount in breaking a police culture within bodies that investigate the police.

It is rather unfortunate that the BC police have framed the problem as one of public perception, still refusing to accept the findings of BC’s most in-depth investigation of the matter, the Frank Paul Inquiry, that there is real and systemic bias in police conducting criminal investigations involving their own members.  Using active police officers on loan from BC’s police forces does little to resolve this conflict of interest, and the lack of substantive change should do little to reassure the public that police officers are truly accountable for their actions.

As the BCCLA has stated before, frontline police officers, despite the position of police management, might welcome the creation of a civilian-led and civilian-staffed agency that performs criminal and death-in-custody investigations.  Should an officer be placed in an unfortunate position of having to kill another person in the line of duty, what is better: to be cleared of wrongdoing by a faulty investigation process trusted by no one, forever dogged by the perception of a cover-up, or to be cleared by an independent body, with no vested interest in anything but the truth?

Tags: Transparency
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Don Sipes has been stopped by West Vancouver police more than 30 times over the years.  He recently won a lawsuit over his last stop in 2006 (the harassment stopped after he launched his lawsuit), with the judge finding that he was arrested “without any grounds at all”.

The BCCLA has received complaints of a similar nature over the years.  Hopefully, Mr. Sipes’ successful lawsuit will make it easier for others to file similar suits, or even better, will stop the practice entirely.

Check out the article on kelowna.com.

Tags: Police complaints
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The new Police Act ignores the Frank Paul  inquiry, official reports on the state of the police complaint process, and the rising tide of public mistrust following the high-profile deaths of Ian Bush, Kevin St. Arnaud, and Robert Dziekanski.  Under the new Police Act, the police will still investigate themselves for the deaths they cause.

Following the death of Robert Dziekanski, an overwhelming majority of British Columbians thought misconduct had occurred.  As the RCMP defended itself, misrepresented facts, and refused to accept even the smallest amount of blame, the erosion of public trust was unavoidable.  When the public is given a rare glimpse into the investigations of in-custody deaths, as has happened with the deaths of Frank Paul and Robert Dziekanski, those investigations are profoundly different than other homicide investigations.  It is often the case that the police attack the character of the deceased while defending the very person they are investigating, and officers involved in fatal encounters are not interviewed immediately, sometimes for months.

There is no reason to trust the police to self-investigate.  And our respect for the police is not diminished by demanding external investigations; on the contrary, when an investigation we trust clears the police of wrongdoing, it can only enhance public trust.  Everyone, including the police, are better off without self-investigation.  So why is there so much resistance?

Tags: Death In Custody
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The results of the 2009 RCMP Employee Survey are in, and the RCMP has little to boast about. While 92% of RCMP members indicated a strong commitment to making the RCMP successful, there were numerous indications that job satisfaction is much lower than commitment.  Especially shocking is that 19% of members indicated harassment had taken place within the last year, with 70% of harassers being colleagues and 42% being direct supervisors or superiors.

Much of the BCCLA’s work in achieving police accountability has been through policy change, so it is disheartening to see that less than half of members agree with the statement “RCMP policies provide clear direction on organizational procedures”.   As for accountability, only 36% (BC: 34%) of members felt that poor performance situations were dealt with effectively in their area, and only 37% (BC: 34%) of employee complaints were dealt with effectively.  Members expressed dismal levels of confidence in RCMP management, with only 25% (BC: 21%) of members agreeing that the RCMP prepares supervisors/managers well for their supervisory/managerial responsibilities, and 26% (BC: 22%) agreeing that the RCMP develops capable senior leaders with the right competencies to carry out executive responsibilities.

Only 24% (BC: 17%) of members believed that action will be taken based on the results of the survey.

Tags: RCMP
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Canadian Border Services Agency reports that border guards are using force more often than before.  Despite what the article says, more instances of force being used does not suggest borders are becoming more dangerous.  Equally possible, if not more likely, is that the introduction of weapons at borders is altering the methods used by border guards.

Check out the story.

Tags: CBSA
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