Trust begins at the top

Editorial (Toronto Star) – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police proudly traces its roots back to 1873, shortly after Confederation. It has long been an iconic national institution. Today, it is also a troubled one.

The Mounties are the country’s largest police force, with a $5 billion budget, 29,000 officers and staff, and a vast range of responsibilities. But they remain saddled with a management structure better suited to the 19th century than the 21st. And public confidence in that management has been sorely tested in recent years.

The RCMP commissioner’s “absolute power” and “absence of meaningful oversight” were cited as corrosive problems by investigator David Brown, who famously called the force “horribly broken” following his probe three years ago.

And Canadians have been shocked to the core by RCMP misjudgments, arrogance and ineptitude in cases that range from the bungled Air India bombing probe to the death of Robert Dziekanski, from putting Maher Arar’s life at risk to mismanaging the pension fund. Former RCMP chief Giuliano Zaccardelli left under a cloud.

Commissioner William Elliott, the first civilian to run the force, has brought in some welcome reforms, even as he has faced a messy high-level staff protest over his own abrasive style. The RCMP no longer investigates itself in serious cases, and stun gun use has been curbed. But Elliott has yet to tackle the issue of oversight.

That may soon change. In a recent speech to the Canadian Club, Elliott served welcome notice that he favours taking the “bold step” of modernizing the RCMP’s governance framework by naming a management board to oversee it. That was one of Brown’s key proposals. “Parliamentary and public oversight can only be effective if there is reliable internal governance,” advised Brown.

It’s a reform that Prime Minister Stephen Harper ought to be eager to adopt by amending the RCMP Act.

While the commissioner would still report to Parliament via the Public Safety Minister on policing and law enforcement matters, he (or she) would answer separately to a civilian management board for the organization and administration of the force. The Prime Minister would appoint the chair. Parliament should vet the choice.

In practice, the board could challenge the commissioner, provide “intensive and informed” oversight, ensure accountability, offer expert management advice and hear staff grievances. Hopefully, gone would be the days of dictatorial commissioners, fear and silence in the ranks, and the sense that the RCMP is accountable only to itself.

Effective oversight is essential in a force whose duties include protecting Harper, thwarting terror, policing provinces and territories, battling organized crime, and serving abroad as peacekeepers.

While civilian oversight wouldn’t remedy all of the RCMP’s woes, it would help restore public trust after much misadventure. This change can’t come too soon.