Stephane Massinon, Calgary, AB (Calgary Herald) – An RCMP review of how a high-risk offender was not recognized during a traffic stop in the middle of an alleged kidnapping has been moved to a more independent RCMP investigator.
At issue is a traffic stop on Thursday evening when the man was pulled over for speeding with a 10-year-old girl in the front seat of his van. The girl, unknown to the officer, had been forcibly taken from a mall minutes beforehand.
John Francis Dionne had been the subject of a public warning last year as a high-risk to reoffend violently. Dionne has subsequently been charged with kidnapping.
After questions arose about why Dionne was allowed to drive off, the Mounties said on Friday they would undertake their own review of the stop.
The RCMP had originally intended to have the integrated traffic unit review the circumstances of its officer, but instead senior management decided on Monday to bring in an officer of higher rank to do the review.
RCMP spokesman Sgt. Tim Taniguchi said the move is meant to show more independence.
The investigator will review the traffic stop in its entirety “including the initial stop, what information was given at the time, what databases were accessed, the communication between the officer and telecoms, interaction during the stop and upon the conclusion of the stop.”
The review could be done in a week, or longer.
Police have previously said that the girl was not reported missing at the time Dionne was pulled over and she was too scared to say anything to the officer.
Only minutes before, the girl was shopping with her father at Deerfoot Mall when they got separated. Dionne is alleged to have posed as a police officer to question her about shoplifting before he grabbed her and brought her to his van.
On his way out of town, he was stopped for speeding and apparently spooked.
He dropped the girl off at a McDonald’s and left.
Solicitor General Frank Oberle said he is “anxiously awaiting” the review.
“I want to know if there’s any improvement in procedure that can be done to prevent something like this from happening,” said Oberle.
“I’m sure it has alarmed a lot of people. First and foremost, we’re ecstatic that it ended well. The child is safe and that’s our primary concern.”
He called the review a regular practice for RCMP.
“They have an issue of concern and it’s prudent to examine what happened to make sure that all the procedures were followed,” said Oberle.
In recent years the accuracy of CPIC has come into question with late input, errors with the input, late removal and no removal of entries. There are more than a few lawsuits for false arrest that have been settled because of the less than stellar operation of the civilians than do the input and maintenance of the system. Having the police stop and arrest you in the “stolen” car when in fact it just had not been removed after recovery is not a desirable situation.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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I remember first hearing that Dionne had been the subject of a previous RCMP public information release – a relatively rare occurrence – and wondering why something hadn’t popped up on CPIC.
Anyway two smart moves by the RCMP here: speedily initiating a review and (after a little sober second thought) re-assigning the review from the member’s home unit. Lets hope the review is throughly and quickly accomplished.
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