Jsunu | 06-30-2010 10:09 AM | Here is the article if you dont want to click in: Quote:
Why we must look at the RCMP's performance in B.C.
By Tex Enemark, Special to the Sun June 30, 2010
A few weeks ago, I suffered a theft from my car. I started to make a report to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Then I thought, "What's the use?" It was then that I realized that I, like most British Columbians, have lost faith in, and respect for, the RCMP as an institution.
It's not just Air India -- which is decades ago -- or Robert Dziekanski. It's the continuing saga and personal experiences. Every week there are stories about RCMP transgressions that do not bear close scrutiny, and that the RCMP, in their arrogance, have refused to be accountable for, such as the Ian Bush murder. There is, as well, allegations of rampant racism within the force, particularly in areas of B.C. where there are large numbers of ab-originals. "You should hear how they talk about us on police radio," one well-respected, moderate, soft-spoken chief said to me a few weeks ago.
Last week, on one day, there were three such stories in The Vancouver Sun. These range from drunken driving to having inappropriate relationships with witnesses, to deaths that seem less than accidental. And every week there are letters to the editor in papers across the province decrying the behaviour of our police forces.
Justice Thomas Braidwood's report cited four officers for their unbelievable testimony. All future testimony by every RCMP witness is mortally tainted by that comment. Once police lose their reputations for, if nothing else, telling the truth, what public confidence can they command? I feel sorry for future prosecutors and future judges. Having witnesses of doubtful veracity, whose behaviour in the face of clearly documented video evidence is scandalously being supported by the RCMP bureaucracy, is beyond comprehension and forgiveness. Here, apologies are meaningless.
But what to do? Despite the current RCMP charm offensive -- it is negotiating a 20-year renewal of the RCMP police services contract with B.C. -- and promises of better systems of future accountability, one would think that a more appropriate and satisfactory resolution of the problem would be taking steps to ensure better police performance in the future.
But when one starts looking at the issues, one soon realizes that the whole structure of policing in B.C. deserves careful, thorough, integrated examination. That is, municipal police forces create badly divided jurisdictional issues, resulting in poor coordination and gaps between policing efforts. The behaviour of municipal police is no better than the RCMP. The problem in West Vancouver a few years ago, and the recent police beating of an uninvolved bystander by Victoria police -- caught on video -- are examples.
Maybe the fact that the per-capita cost of policing by municipal forces should be examined. Vancouverites, for instance, paid $460 per capita for protective services (which includes fire protection), and Delta, which also has its own police force, paid $381. Surrey, using the RCMP, paid $266.
Why? Is the share of the cost of policing borne by municipal tax payers appropriate? How about the sharing of fine revenues? What about recruiting and training, which seem to be at the heart of many of the RCMP's problems? Is the RCMP's quasi-military command structure appropriate? Is it at all helpful that B.C.'s police personnel ultimately take their orders from Ottawa?
There are hundreds of valid questions that must be asked and answered, and this is the time to do it.
That is, irrespective of the best intentions of today's political leaders, once another 20-year policing contract has been signed, the current RCMP charm offensive will end and, for sure, it will be back to business as usual, despite the criticisms.
B.C. should negotiate a short renewal of the RCMP policing contract, something like five years, and appoint a blue-ribbon panel to examine issues of policing structure, accountability, recruiting, training, policing needs, inter-relationships and so on.
It should not be an examination of scandals haunting the RCMP and other police forces. Rather, it would have a mandate to look to the future, to the requirements of the wider community.
This could be done in 18 months. The government could take 18 months considering the report and considering options, then spend two years implementing them, along with an appropriate transition.
This is not a time for short-term reactions to immediate scandals. This would be a serious attempt, taking time to address one of the fundamental governance questions of this society at this time.
Let us seize that opportunity because, if we do not, we will certainly regret it.
Tex Enemark, a public policy consultant, is a former provincial deputy minister.
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