Norma Greenaway (Calgary Herald/Canwest News Service) – Public complaints against the RCMP climbed by almost 35 per cent in the year ending March 31, the force’s watchdog said in an annual report that also cited continuing concerns about the Mounties’ use of Tasers.
The Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP said the most common public gripe against RCMP members during the last fiscal year–one in five — involved allegations of rude, dismissive, biased or non-responsive behaviour by an officer.
Bad attitude was closely followed by complaints about the quality of RCMP criminal investigations, ranging from allegations of improper witness interviews and improper handling of evidence to concealment of facts or misleading reports. These accounted for 17.3 per cent of the complaints.
The report by the independent review body, which was released Thursday, said the number of public complaints increased to 1,692 in 2008-09, up from 1,258 the previous year and 956 in 2006-07.
The commission, which is headed by Paul Kennedy, took credit for issuing a report a year ago that has pushed the RCMP to rethink Taser use, training and reporting. The commission said, however, it still has concerns.
Among other things, it said it is conducting an investigation into all in-custody deaths up to February 2009 involving the use of a Taser by a member of RCMP.
It also said it plans to release its final report by Sept. 7 into the death of Robert Dziekanski, the Polish man who died after being Tasered by RCMP officers at Vancouver’s international airport.
Based on the commission’s analysis of the 2008 statistics, the report said, the Taser is increasingly being used as a deterrent.
It said the weapon was taken out of the holster but not fired in almost 50 per cent of the cases it was used.
Still, the commission said, it’s concerned that calls involving “mental health” or “suicide” resulted in more Taser deployments than any other incident type, especially when there was no evidence in the usage reports that mental health calls were any more risky than other incident types.
Kennedy warns there is a growing perception of a trust deficit with the RCMP that must be addressed.
“The trust deficit can be eliminated by increasing transparency and accountability of RCMP activities by means of an enhanced regime for civilian review of RCMP activities,” he wrote.
“Failure to address this issue increases the risk that distrust will become the dominant characteristic of the public-police discourse.”
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