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B.C. looking to oust RCMP?

B.C. Solicitor General Kash Heed is on a mission. It's an exploratory nibble at this point, but our top B.C. policeman is suggesting he may be gunning for a provincial police force to replace the RCMP. The current RCMP contract with B.C.

B.C. Solicitor General Kash Heed is on a mission. It's an exploratory nibble at this point, but our top B.C. policeman is suggesting he may be gunning for a provincial police force to replace the RCMP.

The current RCMP contract with B.C. expires in March 2012; two years mutual notice is required to opt out of the contract, leaving Heed two months to get his we'll-go-it-alone act together.

When questioned about a provincial police force Heed said, "That's not on the table right now, but if we can't reach a deal, we'll have to reconsider."

Deal making in this case, involves two issues with a new RCMP contract. The first, cost-sharing; currently it's a 70/30 split with the federal government. The second is resolving an increasingly disturbing public concern about public accountability over RCMP actions.

With respect to expense, there's no question continuing the RCMP contract would be far less expensive than creating our own provincial police. Rough estimates show the cost of an RCMP contract to be about half of that of forming a provincial force.

The more serious issue for British Columbians though is transparency and accountability. This is where Heed has to think outside the box, look at other models and arrive at a made-in-B.C. RCMP policy.

If there is one province where we need to improve oversight and accountability of the RCMP, it's British Columbia.

The circumstances surrounding the death of Robert Dziekanski at the hands of the RCMP are just one example of how inept our once-proud national police force has become. This tragic event revealed poor training on the part of the four responding officers, aided and abetted by a totally botched response from RCMP brass.

Closer to home, and even after five years, it's difficult to understand the death of Houston resident Ian Bush. He died in police custody, and while the officer responsible was cleared by a coroner's inquest, it's clear the public would have been far better served by a more thorough investigation.

On a local note, we've all seen the Kitty Heller report on the personal lives of former Prince George RCMP Supt. Dahl Chambers and civilian RCMP employee Ann Bailey. Heller saw this affair as a conflict of interest, and even if there was none, the appearances in this case were troublesome and unbecoming of a senior officer.

All of this, though disquieting, gives Solicitor General Heed ample ammunition to take to the upcoming negotiations with the RCMP. Two suggestions for RCMP oversight in British Columbia should be considered:

n One, a civilian oversight board with the legislated authority to subpoena and call witnesses. The board would file its findings with the Legislative Assembly. This reporting feature takes out the political filters.

n Two, a professional civilian forensics investigation unit empowered to examine all events involving police and civilians, where death, injury or assault has occurred.

No dear reader, I'm not fanaticizing over Marg Helgenberger, rather borrowing a page from Ontario, which has a civilian special investigations unit investigating all circumstances where death, injury or suspected sexual assault have occurred involving the police and civilians.

Ontario has its own provincial police force and the majority of those SIU investigations deal with the provincial or municipal police services. The Ontario SIU does not investigate RCMP-related complaints.

As an aside, Linda Bush, Ian's mother, has called for a similar forensics process in B.C. A B.C. model of the Ontario unit would have to have the authority to investigate RCMP related deaths, injuries or alleged assaults.

If Solicitor General Heed was successful in negotiating both these oversight bodies into our next RCMP contract, two serious questions about improved public policy would be resolved. The first question - and this is a newsroom favourite - "Quis custodiet ipsos custodies?" literally, "Who watches the watchers?" would be answered. The second - do we trust the RCMP to be a competent and responsible police force - would be well on its way to being resolved.

There's absolutely no doubt the RCMP will resist any investigative process that looks too deeply into its practises.

Tough.

I just checked YouTube and there are well over a 200,000 hits on the videos showing Robert Dziekanski's taser-induced death at the hands of the RCMP. Watching an innocent and helpless man die is not a confidence-inspiring event.

The RCMP has no defence for resisting the implementation of competent and transparent investigative procedures into its operations.

Neither does Solicitor General Heed for not insisting our next policing contract - if there is going to be one - include provisions for total transparency on the part of RCMP and its policing practices in British Columbia.


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