Prince George RCMP Supt. Shaun Wright says the Independent Investigations Office needs an office in this city.
Wright raised the idea November 10 while addressing the province's Select Committee on Reforming the Police Act.
As B.C.'s civilian-based police watchdog, the IIO investigates police-involved deaths and serious injuries to determine whether an officer may have committed an offence.
"I'm a strong proponent of civilian oversight. It's effective in maintaining public trust and transparency," Wright told the committee but added that in instances where the IIO is needed, their response times are delayed because investigators must travel up from Surrey.
"This strains the relationships between police officers and the IIO, unnecessarily complicating these investigations during stressful times. This also obliges the police to undertake some critical investigative tasks on behalf of the IIO in their absence," Wright said.
"It's my opinion that this undermines both the intent of a civilian oversight agency as well as public faith, particularly of the Indigenous community, in such an agency. I believe it's critical that whatever oversight model is in place moving forward, there must be an office located in Prince George to serve the North in order to provide timely, effective and transparent oversight."
Reached for comment, IIO Civilian Director Ron MacDonald said the organization has considered opening a satellite office elsewhere in B.C. but realizing that goal would be a long way off as it works to do more with less.
"Whether it would be in Prince George or perhaps Kamloops etcetera is a question but the reality of life for us at this point in time is it's impossible because in order to do that, it would require additional resourcing we simply do not have," MacDonald said.
Despite the IIO's caseload doubling over the last 2 1/2 years, funding from the provincial government actually declined to $9.17 million for 2020-21 from $9.4 million the previous fiscal year. As a consequence, MacDonald said the IIO is in danger of losing the gains it has made in the time it takes to clear a case.
"We are in a serious resourcing crunch at the IIO and any discussion about opening a satellite office is purely theoretical at this point in time because of it," MacDonald said.
He noted it has yet to reach its goal of having 30 investigators on staff due to the difficulty of finding people with the right qualifications and willing to do the work at the salaries being offered.
However, he said the IIO's ability to respond to a call remains "timely enough."
"In general, it's not our view that the delay it invariably takes us to get to a scene is such that it negatively impacts the investigation," MacDonald said. "It's not uncommon in the investigative world, and that includes the police world, for specialized units to take time to get to scenes and there are ways to maintain a scene until that happens."
Two IIO investigations of incidents in Prince George remain outstanding - an officer-involved shooting at a local motel in May and a complaint about injuries suffered during an arrest in October related to an incident of road rage in which a man allegedly pulled out a gun.
In May 2020, the IIO forwarded findings to the B.C. Prosecution Service from a July 2017 arrest in which a man died after he was pepper sprayed.
A decision on charge approval remains pending, BCPS spokesperson Dan McLaughlin said.
"While the BCPS makes every effort to provide a timely charge decision the amount of time required to complete the process is determined largely by the volume and complexity of the file materials received and the complexity of the charges under consideration," McLaughlin said in an email to the Citizen. "We do not have a timeline for the completion of the assessment process in this case."
