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BLACK-SHEEP COMMENTARIES TIME TO LOOK AT NORTH SHORE JOINT FORCEMunicipal Policing Makes Sense “POLICING is the
most powerful tool that society possesses against crime.” The recent storm and stress in West Vancouver’s municipal police department is a golden opportunity for North Shore residents to engage themselves in a dialogue with our local mayors, councillors and the provincial solicitor general, John Les, concerning the creation of a North Shore Police Department. It is equally important that any dialogue with the Solicitor General should question the capacity of the RCMP to function as British Columbia’s provincial police force beyond the expiry in 2012 of its existing 20-year obligation. It should also include consideration of the probability that a new commissioner of the RCMP, faced with a looming urgency to confine the force to matters within federal jurisdiction, may request British Columbia and Alberta – fat-cat provinces – to re-institute their own provincial policing, something that is taken for granted in Ontario and Quebec. Together, our three municipalities on the North Shore can be viewed as a microcosm of British Columbia’s existing mixed bag of municipal police departments and RCMP detachments. It is my strongly held belief that the creation of a municipal police department, pursuant to the Police Act of British Columbia, serving the City of North Vancouver, the District of North Vancouver and the District of West Vancouver would provide the North Shore with seamless, focussed and accountable policing. Either we insist on the creation of one democratically controlled municipal police force serving the entire North Shore or resign ourselves to the status quo: an independent police force in West Vancouver supervised by a police board that has little democratic connection with taxpayers, and a squad of leased RCMP officers in the city and district of North Vancouver. Let it be clearly understood that Mounties are not municipal employees, and though deemed to be provincial police they remain federal employees, accountable only to the commissioner of the RCMP. They carry out their duties without supervision and direction from a police board and, most unacceptably, they are beyond the reach of the complaint process in our Police Act and our twin law ministers, Solicitor General John Les and Attorney General Wallace Oppal. On Dec 12, Les talked with CKNW’s Bill Good about the problems in the West Vancouver Police Department and policing generally. Here are some excerpts: Bill Good: The firing of Chief Scott Armstrong; were you advised? John Les: Not directly, no. The decision to hire a chief or let a chief go rests with the police board, not with me. Good: And would it be common practice not to have a discussion to explain or advise you? Les: They’re not obliged to do that ... I need to satisfy myself that policing is well executed in a community like West Vancouver. I had several discussions with the mayor who is also the chair of the police board and I suggested she call a meeting of the board. Good: So you got involved? Les: … there was a multiplication of issues that seemed to arise all of a sudden so I involved myself to that degree to make sure they were being dealt with … There are several investigations ongoing – I’m watching them closely – the police complaint commissioner has again involved himself. . . . Good: But the mayor insisted that the firing didn’t have anything to do with the (Alford case) – that makes people think there is something more serious . . .don’t the citizens of West Vancouver have a right to know? Les: That is an issue that the mayor, as chair of the police board, is answerable for. ... Good: Many critics . . .say that the RCMP is trying to do too many things for too many people. Are you satisfied with the role of the RCMP in B.C.’s communities? Les: Yes I am – most definitely. I think they are a first-class police force – that doesn’t mean that, like any other organization, they don’t have the odd difficulty once in a while. In terms of the policing contract we have with the RCMP in B.C. … in terms of their acting as our provincial police – I have no reservations as to their professionalism whatsoever. Good: So you consider the RCMP our provincial police force. Have you considered amalgamation of police forces to create an actual provincial police force? Les: No, there’s been no consideration of that. We’re not looking to create a provincial police force per se. And in terms of amalgamation ... most of the province is policed by the RCMP. We have some 6000 RCMP in the province and then we have about 2500 municipal police officers in 11 different communities. And it is our position that communities ought to be able to exercise their preference – and in the case of these 11 municipalities I am not about an agenda of amalgamating those municipal departments. I am, however, very interested in integrating specialized police services. Good: Police Complaints Commissioner Dirk Rynveld said he needs legislation – clarification of his power to investigate complaints and compel chiefs ... to cooperate. Les: We have a review being conducted by Josiah Wood. His report is due in three weeks or so – it’s been ongoing for a year – a very thorough review of the complaint process as it applies to the 11 municipal police forces that we have in BC. I’m going to be looking at the report closely and studying his recommendations and bringing forth changes. For Les to say that he has no reservations about the RCMP acting as our provincial police force is tantamount to saying that he has closed his mind to red-light facts and circumstances that, in the very least, should trigger a contingency plan for the return of our own provincial police force in 2012. For example: Federal Auditor-General Sheila Fraser’s report for 2005, tabled in the House of Commons on November 22, 2005, which was given widespread media attention the day following. The National Post headlined it’s story with “Staff Shortages Putting RCMP at Risk: Fraser”; and the article began with “Chronic staffing shortages have put the RCMP at risk of ‘overloading’ officers in many detachments, Auditor-General Sheila Fraser said yesterday in a report that also found ‘troubling’ gaps in officer training.” Three days before Les talked with Bill Good, The Globe and Mail matter-of-factly announced, – “RCMP overextended in provincial policing, ex-commissioner says” – “RCMP resources are stretched so thin with so many masters: 200 odd towns and cities, eight of the 10 provinces, plus the territories,” said Robert Simmonds, the RCMP commissioner from 1977 to 1987. “The demands are great ... and international crimes don’t get the attention they deserve.” On Dec. 18, I spoke to West Vancouver Coun. John Clark and he was emphatic in saying “We have the opportunity to turn negative into positive. It has never been more evident that we must review and revise the system under which policing is governed and enacted throughout British Columbia, not just West Vancouver.” The ongoing brouhaha in West Vancouver and the looming question of whether or not to continue beyond 2012 with the RCMP as a provincial police force are matters of such immediate and long-term consequence that Premier Campbell should intervene and restore policing to the portfolio of the attorney general. In 1992, while still a justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Oppal embarked on an exhaustive inquiry into policing in our province. In July 1994 Oppal filed an exhaustive and momentous report: Closing the Gap – Policing in British Columbia In his comments Oppal said, “In discussing the future policing needs of this province, it is imperative to ask ourselves whether it is appropriate to have a provincial and municipal police force which has its headquarters in Ottawa. “Clearly, the attorney general, the chief law enforcement officer of the Province, now has less control over the RCMP than that which was agreed upon in 1950. “In the event that the RCMP is not prepared to undergo the necessary change that is suggested in this report, it will be imperative for the province to consider establishing its own provincial police force.” As the principal nonpartisan law minister having constitutional responsibility for the administration of justice, Oppal is duty-bound, sooner or later, to call for a bipartisan committee of the legislature to carry out a full study of the actual costs, utility and impact of RCMP policing in British Columbia, and consideration of the establishment of a provincial policing agency “so as to be prepared should the RCMP not comply with provincial policing policy.” Mr. Premier, your attorney general is our paramount expert on policing. It seems to me that if you don’t use him, you risk losing him. Wallace G Craig – wallace-gilby-craig@realjustice.ca – NS News – December 27, 2006 |
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