Brian Lewis (The Province) – Once again, the red serge that usually dominates the RCMP dress uniform is equally prominent on faces within our national police force.
As you’ve seen this week, the Mounties are mired in yet another scandal. This one involves some of the force’s most senior officers formally complaining in Ottawa about the leadership methods of RCMP commissioner William Elliott.
When appointed in 2007 by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, he was the first civilian ever to head the RCMP. But now this group of senior “mutineering Mounties” say their boss is verbally abusive, close-minded, arrogant and insulting.
This scandal follows a number of mishandled, high-profile cases, the mismanagement of the force’s pension funds and, of course, the infamous Tasering death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver airport, also in 2007.
In fact, this litany of stumbling and bumbling led Carleton University professor and public service expert Linda Duxbury this week to tag the RCMP as “poster boys of dysfunction.” That, indeed, is a sad commentary, given that there are many dedicated and hard-working individuals who wear the serge.
However, the timing of these transgressions couldn’t be worse here in B.C. and especially for some communities south of the Fraser River. This province’s contract with the RCMP expires in 2012 and talks about a new long-term pact are already under way.
While there’s always been talk of returning to the days nearly 60 years ago when B.C. ran its own police force (as it’s entitled to do under the Constitution), the RCMP’s deteriorating reputation is hurting its prospects of being rehired.
The arguments for replacing the RCMP are probably strongest here in the Lower Mainland, where it’s the municipal police force for most of the 28 municipalities within Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley Regional District. Only Vancouver, Delta, New Westminster, West Vancouver, Port Moody and Abbotsford run their own police forces.
In Surrey, for example, the RCMP operates its largest and most multicultural detachment in Canada. The national force will relocate its B.C. headquarters– E Division– from Vancouver to Surrey in 2013 and is already constructing a $996-million, four-building HQ complex to accommodate its 2,700 workers at its 140th Street and Fraser Highway site.
No doubt attracting E Division to Surrey was an economic development coup for Mayor Dianne Watts, who told The Province’s editorial board last week her city now has a very good working relationship with the RCMP.
Regardless, many of the advantages Watts cites for having the RCMP serve Surrey — sharing resources with other detachments, for example — also apply to implementing a B.C. or at least Lower Mainland regional force. The latter could encompass metro and the FVRD, given common issues like gangs and pot grow-ops.
Either a B.C. or regional force would be run from here at home, not from Ottawa, and if organized properly should deliver increased transparency, accountability and efficiency.
That’s not to say dumping the Mounties is the way to go, but unless the RCMP cleans up its act, this is an option more B.C. ers will support. It certainly warrants further study.
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