(Nanaimo Daily News) - Canada’s new top Mountie will have his work cut out for him.
Bob Paulson officially took over as RCMP commissioner Thursday, vowing to take a hard line on systemic problems facing the police force.
The RCMP’s image has been battered during the past few years.
Most recently, a series of harassment allegations from female officers has put our national police force into damage control.
Paulson was firm in addressing these issues on Thursday. He said that when there are allegations of misconduct, officers will be suspended immediately without pay, have their badge and gun seized and be given a chance to explain themselves. Paulson said the process was needed to remedy past practices that slowed things down due to a “perverted sense” of fair treatment.
“There’s no presumption of innocence in disciplinary, administrative proceedings. There is none. I don’t want to appear heavy-handed, but we’re going to act,” he told reporters.
Strong words. But we wonder whether Paulson will really be able to implement the kind of change he spoke about so passionately on Thursday.
The RCMP no longer works at the local level and, without major operational changes, we doubt any kind of policy reforms can change that.
Canada’s national police force is no longer held in the same esteem it was just a decade ago.
Public attitudes toward the RCMP first started turning sour in 2007, with the fatal Tasering of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport. The final report revealed that RCMP were not justified in using a Taser against the Polish immigrant and that the officers later deliberately misrepresented their actions to investigators.
Since then, a series of other incidents have plunged Mounties in less-than-favourable light. In Nanaimo, the RCMP have sparked questions over their behaviour a number of times.
The RCMP is a federal organization doing the job of a local police force. No amount of tough-talking speeches by Paulson will address the fundamental problems that underline this organization.
However, we do think that B.C.’s new citizen-led police watchdog will go a long way toward re-establishing more accountability within the force. It will also help rebuild the trust it once had.
We believe Paulson at least appears to be sincere in his effort to tackle problems within the RCMP.
He pledged other systemic changes, including cutting the size of the force’s management and diversifying the senior ranks to ensure at least 35% of the top officers are women. Meanwhile, he will also have to deal with a push to unionize officers and the threat of cutting costs without depleting front line services.
It will take more than simply being tough with trouble-making Mounties to change the RCMP’s tarnished image. It will likely take significant operational changes that drastically alter how law enforcement is delivered in our communities. This might include looking at regional or provincial police forces at the local level.
But it also comes down to a culture shift. Boosting the number of female officers and cutting management is a good plan, however, more work needs to be done so that all RCMP officers realize that they are accountable to the public.
Paulson talks about implementing some significant changes within the force but, unfortunately, we fear that there will simply be more of the same and our communities deserve better than that.
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