RCMP Watch

Omar El Akkad, Ottawa (Canadian Press) - The head of the RCMP has admitted the police force did not do a good job making information public about the taser controversy, and vowed that changes will be made.

“I believe we need to do a better job in assessing and factoring in the public interest,” RCMP Commissioner William Elliott said yesterday in a speech before the Canadian Club of Ottawa.

“We need to recognize that, given the sensitive nature of much of our work, the RCMP can tend to lean toward less disclosure rather than more. I believe we need to reverse this tendency if we are to reverse the downward trend I referred to earlier, of the percentage of Canadians who believe the RCMP provides the public with adequate information about our work,” Commissioner Elliott said, according to speaking notes provided by the RCMP.

His speech, titled, “Tradition, Transition and Trust: The Commissioner’s Perspective,” touched on many issues for which the RCMP has been publicly criticized. Commissioner Elliott said the police force can often end up taking heat regardless of what it does.

“We have been soundly criticized recently by the same individual on the same day for releasing information and for not releasing information,” he said. On the taser file, Commissioner Elliott said the police force had erred when it refused to make some information public from taser-use incident reports.

“Frankly we did not handle this matter very well,” he said. “We should not have needed two kicks at the can. We must learn from that and do better.