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Probe sought for in-custody jail cell death |
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Written by PAUL STRICKLAND
Citizen staff
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Wednesday, 02 July 2008 |
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PRINCE GEORGE RCMP
"It is becoming more and more important that such a civilian agency should have the responsibility for these kinds of investigations if there's going to be the level of public confidence we need for a system of police accountability," Murray Mollard said Wednesday from Vancouver.
The facts known so far in the case are that on June 26 RCMP members arrested the woman for being intoxicated in a public place and subsequently lodged her in Prince George RCMP detachment cells, Paul E. Kennedy, chair of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, said in a release.
"Some time later, the guard found her in her cell unresponsive," Kennedy said. "Subsequent attempts to revive her were not successful."
An autopsy was conducted at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops Jan. 27, said Annie Linteau of the RCMP's E Division based in Vancouver.
However, the results of the autopsy will not be released until a coroner's inquest, Linteau said.
Coroner's inquests are mandatory after an in-custody death.
At the request of the family, the RCMP will not release or confirm the name of the deceased woman, Linteau added.
On June 27, Kennedy said initiated a complaint into the conduct of those unidentified RCMP members involved in the arrest and subsequent detention of the woman.
"I am initiating this complaint with the full appreciation that the RCMP has deployed its 'E' Division North-District major crime unit to investigate this incident and that the RCMP will be ordering an independent officer review," he said. "It is not my intention to prejudice the RCMP investigations.
However, I will be closely monitoring RCMP progress as it relates to the investigations underway so that I can ensure, at their completion, a timely response to this complaint.
"Given the ongoing expressions of public concern as they relate to the detention, monitoring and treatment of prisoners in RCMP custody, the magnitude of the responsibility assumed by the RCMP in relations to persons held in its custody and my previous recommendations to the RCMP on such matters, I am satisfied there are reasonable grounds to investigate the conduct of all members involved in this incident," Kennedy said.
Mollard said people should not necessarily be reassured by the promptness with which Kennedy acted to file his complaint.
"The idea that the chair has initiated a complaint in this matter doesn't give us any level of confidence that there will be an impartial, thorough and professional investigation into this woman's death," he said.
In the case of other in-custody deaths where B.C. Civil Liberties Association intervened in the follow-up to inquests, the RCMP complaints commissioner filed his own complaint to "elbow aside" the BCCLA's independent complaint, he said.
Kennedy will have oversight over the investigations that arise from his complaint, Mollard said.
"That doesn't meet the gold standard, which is an independent, civilian investigation," he contended.
"It's high time for a change," Mollard said. "In fact, it's past time for a change."
Kennedy said his complaint was being filed under the provisions of the RCMP Act. He said it called for looking into the conduct of all RCMP members or other persons appointed or employed
under the authority of the RCMP Act who were involved in the events of June 26, as well as matters of general practice applicable to situations in which persons are held in the custody of the RCMP.
Specifically, Kennedy said, the complaint calls for looking into:
--whether the RCMP officers, or other persons employed on their behalf, who were involved in these events from the moment of initial contact and arrest through to the subsequent detention of the woman and her eventual death, complied with all appropriate training, policies, procedures, guidelines and statutory requirements relating to persons held in RCMP custody;
-- whether the RCMP members at the Prince George detachment provided adequate supervision and direction to the guard or guards who were charged with the care and handling of prisoners in the custody of Prince George RCMP during the period of the woman's detention and subsequent death; and
--whether the RCMP national, divisional and detachment-level policies, procedures and guidelines relating to the monitoring and treatment of persons detained in RCMP custody are adequate to ensure their proper care and safety.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 07 September 2008 )
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