Dawn Walton, Calgary, AB (Globe and Mail) – British Columbia, which already has the country’s worst opinion of the RCMP, lodged the largest number of complaints against the Mounties in 2008, according to a new report.
In its annual review released yesterday, the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP examined 1,829 grievances – a slight decline from the year before. For a second consecutive year, the independent watchdog found that the Pacific Region of B.C. and Yukon, which has the heaviest RCMP presence in Canada, fielded the bulk of concerns, with 45 per cent of the national total.
The three Prairie provinces and two other territories filed 38 per cent of complaints – the largest number originating in Alberta. Atlantic Canada launched 14 per cent of the complaints, while Ontario and Quebec accounted for 3 per cent of the total.
(Files on another 546 complaints were still outstanding and not included in the total.)
Over all, 4,511 individual allegations were made against the RCMP and its officers, ranging from neglect of duty, which made up almost 30 per cent of cases, to improper attitude (22 per cent) and improper use of force (more than 10 per cent).
“As with the allegations in 2007, there is a common perceived lack of police professionalism,” the report notes.
The commission reiterated the six recommendations it made last year: Improve the public complaint process, as well as the tracking system; issue a formal directive for handling grievances; draw up national guidelines and training; reduce waiting times for addressing concerns; and inform the commission immediately of complaints.
But the RCMP did not officially respond and the recommendations have not been fully met, the commission said.
“The Commission is concerned about this lack of response from Headquarters, given that there appears to be issues with the RCMP public complaint process to be rectified, and those identified in last year’s report have been further exacerbated by inaction,” the report concludes.
The RCMP’s national office was not available to respond to the report.
Nelson Kalil, a spokesman for the commission, said the Mounties have suffered from “PR bungles in how they’ve dealt with issues.”
“What we’d like to see is complaints come directly to us rather than the RCMP,” he added.
Mr. Kalil said there are concerns that the RCMP cannot adequately investigate itself and that complaints are being dealt with too informally.
It all comes back to that a person who wants to file a legitimate complaint is scared of payback, don’t know how or where to go to do it. How many people know of the RCMP watch?? Few in number. The public have to be informed of the process in say community newspapers
(only 10 -15 pages long) not hidden in bigger papers i.e. chronicle herald, globe and mail, etc.
If you want the police to be accountable then let the public know how to follow through. Who wants to put in a legitimate complaint when fear of payback by every officer in that detachment? It looks like from the commissioner’s point of view and they have a job to do, they are concerned also….Am I right?
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Good example JohnnyG. The complaints against officers include plenty of this sort of tripe. Persons wishing to escape from Provincial traffic violation fines/points which may adversely affect their record or insurance often complain, and when they are told that the traffic violation is a court matter and that the alleged officer conduct has to be dealt with on its own merits, they abandon the complaint. Thus exposing the complaint for what it really is, an attempt to shirk their personal responsibility. An activity not confined to provincial traffic violations.
However, according to the CPC the RCMP cannot close the complaint when it is abandoned unless extraordinary measures are taken to ensure that it is abandoned and the complainant is not willing to proceed. This is accomplished by ongoing registered mail, requests for an interview, phone calls, personal visits to the complainant if calls are ignored by them. It remains “open” should they wish to proceed at a later date. All needing to be well documented.
At present, the CPC does not track complaint statistics in enough depth to separate the ridiculous from the sublime. Another example of the misleading use of statistics and how they can be manipulated without context being established.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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My favorite complaint was a story I heard about a fluently bilingual motorist who complained that the anglo Cst. (in a English province) didn’t offer him service in French.
This was an obvious retaliation for getting a ticket, but yet was fully investigated. The only thing that saved the member was that his detachment wasn’t a designated Bilingual one….
Hot debate. What do you think?
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It is unfortunate that they do not provide a complete set of statistics with respect to the entirety of the process.
Percentages of unfounded, undetermined, frivolous, or abandoned complaints would be instructive. The percentage of complaints resulting from the issuance of traffic violation tickets, racial, criminal or civil law complaints would also be instructive.
I do note that on their website there was some breakdown to explain an anomaly in that one person was responsible for the vast majority of complaints filed in a given jurisdiction. How many chronic complainers were identified last year?
Some context would certainly be informative, however, the media only attends to negativity and rarely ever gives a forthright and balanced reporting on anything.
Maybe DLord would favor us with a breakdown of his numerous complaints over the past 20 years.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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When charge is delayed like this and appears out of the blue, it normally shouldn’t carry a lot of weight. It sounds more like malicious persecution to me.
I can totally believe a charge was filed. Internally in the RCMP I have seen how things that were never a concern many months earlier, were turned around and used against people. If the RCMP will do it to their own, they will do it to the public…
Hot debate. What do you think?
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