Policing
is a complicated business
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To the editor:
For some, the criminal
justice system can be a black and white world of shame and blame. Those who face
the unfortunate circumstance of being a victim of crime often feel both shame
and self-blame; those committing the offenses are invariably the subject of
blame as police seek the facts and the court system tries to establish both
fault and remedy; and those empowered to protect society from criminal elements
can be easy targets of blame for wrongs that aren’t righted or for processes
that go awry.
In reality the criminal
justice process which comprises police, prosecutors, the courts, and our system
of legal corrections including prisons are anything but black and white, and
anything but simple, and presents a world full of grey areas, uncertain outcomes
and complex questions with sometimes uneven answers.
From a policing
perspective the Royal Canadian Mounted Police within British Columbia has always
sought to provide affirmative answers to three fundamental questions from the
public: “Am I safe? Are you competent? Can I trust you?” To provide a strong
“yes” to all three questions is not without challenges. There are few issues
to society as complex as the criminal justice system where tremendous
partnerships and collaboration must exist between multiple agencies, where
resources are sometimes stretched thin, and where the public’s appreciation of
the cold, hard reality of policing is far distant from what is portrayed on
popular television drama programs. In reality, crime is not solved within 60
minutes (including commercial breaks), public perceptions based on news media
headlines is not always the reality, and the facts are rarely unveiled in whole
due to the need to protect sensitive investigations and to obey strong laws
pertaining to personal privacy.
Good examples are the news
media comments on how the RCMP managed two sensitive and complicated criminal
cases—the murder of Gabriel Palmer in Kamloops and the murder of Amanda Zhao
in Burnaby. It is commendable that journalists seek to ask the hard questions,
seek to unearth new details, and strive to stitch together often disparate bits
of incomplete information in an effort to provide a complete fabric of facts to
the public. Unfortunately, like with the knitting together of any fabric,
missing a few important stitches in the weaving of a story about police action
can result in very uneven and disappointing results—especially if the
journalist focuses only on the role of police.
Cases that ultimately come
before a judge must jump through many hoops including detailed investigations by
police officers who determine whether or not an arrest should be made and Crown
counsel who then decide whether or not and what kind of charge should be laid
based on the report from police. In British Columbia the final decision whether
or not to charge someone with a criminal offence is generally in the hands of
prosecutors, not police officers. Once charges are laid in a case then the
judiciary plays a major role in weighing the evidence and ultimately arriving at
a decision as to innocence or guilt. To pull a few threads of information from
this detailed and intertwined process and then to pen an opinion column on a
handful of “facts” is to do great injustice to the victim, their families,
and the complexity of the criminal justice system.
The RCMP is not saying
that mistakes do not happen in criminal investigations. Although rare, mistakes
can occur especially when investigators are under great pressure—which they
often are; when there is not only incomplete information but also facts than can
change from day to day; when different languages and cultures are involved; and
when a benign witness suddenly turns into a suspect part way through what seems
like a routine questioning.
Police, prosecutors and
the judiciary are integrated partners in the criminal justice system but the
reality is that it is the police whose actions and judgments are often
scrutinized the greatest through the luxury of 20/20 hindsight. The reason for
this is the simple fact that police actions and investigations are the only
component in the justice system where decisions must sometimes be made in a
split second due to immediate public safety needs, where conclusions must
sometimes be drawn from incomplete or best-available facts, and where public and
news media expectations for quick results are at its peak. To judge police in
hindsight based on superficial and sensational tidbits of knowledge is like
extrapolating what a large and complicated jigsaw picture looks like by focusing
on just one piece of that puzzle.
There is no argument from
the RCMP that police must remain accountable, responsible and effective in their
work. Indeed there are very few professions in society with the level of
scrutiny applied to police officers. In the case of the RCMP there are multiple
levels of internal checks and balances including the stringent Code of Conduct
which holds all RCMP officers to an exemplary standard of behaviour; there is an
independent national public complaint commissioner assigned to be the watchdog
over RCMP conduct; and there is the ongoing transparency of being accountable to
national laws pertaining to access to information. In addition, RCMP officers
conducting detailed investigations are trained under what is called the Major
Case Management Model which, drawing on best practices from around the world,
instructs police on how to conduct and manage investigations into major crimes.
And finally, when the entire case is heard, the courts themselves will test the
credibility of police testimony.
Under the emotional and
sensational news headlines that greet the public every day is a very deep and
complex world of unreported fact and context. Often this sub-context, this bulk
of important information lying under the sharp tip of the ice berg, cannot be
quickly shared with journalists or the public because it may jeopardize a
sensitive investigation, derail a court case, or violate a person’s legal
right to protection and their privacy. This is essential in order to balance the
safety and security of Canadians with the rights of those who endanger public
safety. In addition, there are many instances where trial judges themselves are
not privy to all the possible facts due to the strategy of prosecutors or the
dynamics of admissibility. It is in such cases where police are “blamed” for
incomplete work, for withholding information, and for taking what may on the
surface appear to be shortcuts.
Such quick and easy
criticism from journalists and leveling of instant-analysis blame against police
comes with the territory although is never easy to accept by officers who are
privy to the whole picture of what’s really going on and who remain committed
to serving the public. Nevertheless the work of police goes on people committed
to serve the public and maintain the right.
Beverley Busson,
deputy commissioner
Pacific Region and
commanding