Can cops investigate cops?

Not if they’re from the same force, according to a report released Monday by the Commission for Public Complaints Against RCMP (CPC).

“In the opinion of the commission, the current approach of the RCMP investigating itself does not engender confidence in the transparency and integrity of criminal investigations and its outcome,” stated the CPC release.

The CPC reviewed 28 internal RCMP investigations and found investigators knew the officer who was being scrutinized in one-quarter of the cases. In some cases, junior officers investigated senior counterparts.

The report recommends immediately implementing new policies, like outside police forces investigating Mountie-related cases involving death, serious assaults or injury, until the formation of “an enhanced RCMP review body.”

As the CPC noted in its findings: “What is at issue today is no longer whether civilian review is desirable, but rather how civilian involvement in investigations can be most effective.”

District Coun. Doug MacKay-Dunn, a retired cop who has performed internal and external police reviews, hopes that with this province’s Police Act currently under review Solicitor General Kash Heed will makes recommendations to have civilian oversight legislated for criminal code offences involving municipal and RCMP officers.

“(The report) has opened the door to full-fledged civilian oversight,” said MacKay-Dunn.

For the public, the optics matter here. Many find it hard to believe that a police investigator can be remain totally impartial when investigating another officer, even if they wear different-coloured uniforms.

Civilian oversight may be the only way to help burnish the rep of the Mounties and municipal forces that have been tarnished lately by scandals involving officers.

–The Outlook