‘This is not a police state,’ Ombudsman says

Ottawa police Chief Charles Bordeleau says the suggestion by the province’s ombudsman that the police service is resisting an investigation into whether new use-of-force guidelines are needed is “unfounded” and “not factually based.”

Ontario Ombudsman André Marin told the Citizen’s editorial board on Tuesday that civilian governing bodies need to act to curb police power.

He said he’s facing resistance from some police services — including Ottawa’s — to his investigation, which began after this summer’s fatal shooting of 18-year-old Sammy Yatim by Toronto police.

Marin said the provincial ministry of community safety and correctional services has been loathe to rein in the police, and police services boards “have not been asserting themselves as much as they should.”

As a result, “I think some of the police community has forgotten that this is not a police state,” Marin said, calling the police “a formidable lobby group.

“The police associations are the most sophisticated special interest groups in society today,” he added. “They are the most funded, the most connected, and they flex their muscle.”

Marin said some police services, boards and associations have been co-operative. But others, he added, “want nothing to do with it.”

That includes the Ottawa Police Service, he said, where Bordeleau and the Ottawa Police Association “both said basically, ‘We de-escalate all the time. There’s no issue here.’”

Marin called that “an instant reaction. I’m hopeful, with the passage of time and the evolution of the investigation, they will reconsider their position.”

Told of Marin’s comments, Bordeleau accused Marin of “making unfounded statements that are not factually based.

“He has never spoken to me. He has never written to me about this investigation that he has launched. So I have no idea what he’s talking about with respect to resistance,” Bordeleau said. “As chief of police, it’s my duty to co-operate with any investigation that’s conducted by one of the departments under my ministry that I report to, and I’ve co-operated fully.”

Bordeleau said he’s been saying that the Ottawa Police Service does an excellent job at de-escalating situations, and is successful at de-escalating cases with an individual in crisis 98 per cent of the time without the use of force.

The service is always evolving its training and procedures and looking at opportunities to learn, he said.

“I’m open to change, and we’ve demonstrated that as a police service and as a profession in the past. So I have no idea where Mr Marin is coming from or why he’s making those types of statements, because I’ve never said anything of the sort.

“It’s irresponsible of him to make those types of statements to the media or in the public forum.”

Marin also criticized Bordeleau, who was sworn in as chief in March 2012, for getting rid of cameras on police Tasers — an initiative of his predecessor, Vern White. “I don’t think that was a very wise move.”

Bordeleau bristled at that criticism, too. Bordeleau said after the evaluation of a pilot project that saw tactical officers and front-line supervisors carrying cameras on Tasers, he and the executive to discontinue their use.

There were a host of reasons for the decision, he said. The cameras shot poor-quality video, drained batteries, and were unreliable and required expensive repair, he said. There were other issues: the position of the cameras on the handle of the Taser meant they were often covered by the user, and they were damaged by seatbelts as officers got out of their cruisers.

“It was a wise decision based on the evidence that was presented to us; based on the assessment and evaluation we did,” he said. “Perhaps if (Marin) had educated himself or … had the courtesy to call me and ask me why we weren’t using cameras on the Tasers, he wouldn’t have made those statements.”

Marin said current use-of-force guidelines are “disproportionately in favour of the police and not in the public interest.” Any new provincewide policy would require a “major shakeup” in police training, he said. “I think we’d be looking at a major change in police culture.”

As a society, Marin said, we give the police a great deal of deference. “I don’t have a problem with that. But when it comes to police policing themselves, I think the public and the media have to scrutinize them.

“The police association is not there to protect you and me,” he said. “They’re not there for a search for the truth.”

The last major intervention by the ministry was in the 1990s, when it issued guidelines to improve the safety of police pursuits, Marin said. “Immediately that had an immense, positive effect on the system. They’ve been very quiet since then.”

For their part, police services boards should “take a more proactive role in making sure the police services follow the law,” he said, adding he would like them to “provide guidance” to police services to co-operate with his investigation into de-escalating conflicts involving police.

Marin said he could understand the lack of enthusiasm for greater oversight by some police officers.

“It’s tempting to be self-serving and say, ‘Who wants more direction from Queen’s Park?’,” he said. But police have to look at the broader public policy issue, he said. “Do we not want to get a better system?”

Marin said the Special Investigations Unit, which probes police actions that result in serious injury of death, needs a statute of its own to strengthen its authority.

At present, he said, there’s no consequence for police who “don’t respect their legal obligations when the SIU is involved.”

Following the Yatim shooting, “police were on the scene, kicking cartridges,” said Marin, a former SIU director. A citizen who did that would be arrested and charged with obstruction of justice, he said.

The law should provide that police officers who fail to meet their obligations to the SUI are guilty of an offence, Marin said. “It would make a huge difference if there was that provision in the act.”

Marin said a report his office released in June on the use of excessive force in Ontario’s jails has already made a difference.

“I think things are getting better across the board,” he said. “Our report really caused huge changes in government. The Ministry of Correctional Services has completely revamped how they do their investigations.”

Conditions have also improved at the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Detention Centre, which Marin’s report found “exemplifies everything that is wrong in a correctional institution.”

“It’s showing improvement and will continue to show improvement,” Marin said.

Original Article
Source: ottawacitizen.com
Author: Don Butler and MICHAEL WOODS