Waterloo, Ontario (TheRecord.com – Opinions) – To their credit, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police realize the death of Robert Dziekanski has had negative repercussions that go beyond the unfortunate death of an individual.
The comments made by Deputy Commissioner Bill Sweeney at a Senate committee meeting this week provide a clear sign the Mounties want to avoid the type of confrontation in which Dziekanski died. Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant, was travelling through Vancouver International Airport in October 2007 on his way to Kamloops, where his mother lived. After he apparently became frustrated at the airport, four Mounties approached him and fired an electronic stun gun known as a Taser several times.
“We are very sorry for Mr. Dziekanski’s death, and are committed to learning as much as possible from this terrible event,” Sweeney told the security and defence committee. He acknowledged that the case has “not promoted confidence in” the RCMP.
Sweeney, of course, was aware that an inquiry headed by Thomas Braidwood is looking into Dziekanski’s death, and he avoided getting into the details of the case. The Mounties, however, are wise to start reviewing their policies now, even before the inquiry releases its report. The deputy commissioner stressed that the RCMP wants to train officers to try to defuse a possibly tense encounter so that they don’t have to resort to physical force.
The deputy commissioner is right. The approach he favours will probably have the support of the majority of Canadians. Many Canadians wondered about the Mounties’ decision to repeatedly use a stun gun on Dziekanski. They had seen a video of Dziekanski’s encounter with the police recorded by a passerby, and they weren’t convinced the police response was appropriate.
Sweeney pointed out that the Mounties respond to three million service calls a year, but the force now knows that a mistake in one case can overshadow the good work it does. This understanding could help the Mounties to avoid similar problems in future.
Good idea Alcan. Is that what Scotland Yard does?
3,000,000 calls per year. Who knew? Lets see, number of complaints 1,258:
From the CPC website: “In this regard, this year they worked with complainants and RCMP detachments to informally resolve 193 complaints, rather than proceeding with formal complaints and full investigations. Of these, 58 per cent were resolved in less than five days and only 11 later resulted in formal complaints. It should be noted that the CPC does not resolve serious incidents informally.”
Interesting math, 11 formal complaints in the end. Wadda ya think Alcan??
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Yeap!
Next time they will secure the area and make sure no one can use their cell phone camera during an arrest.
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