Independent probes would arrest erosion of public trust in policing
There’s been an erosion of public confidence in police for decades in Canada. In particular, the public’s skepticism and frustration in numerous cases where police investigating police (PIP) often found no wrongdoing by the officers involved have been behind the growth of civilian oversight bodies, and in some cases civilian investigators, in various jurisdictions in this country.
So outspoken policing critic John Sewell’s criticism recently, that it’s “totally inappropriate” for Halifax Regional Police to investigate alleged mishandling of an investigation by Cape Breton Regional Police into a teen’s death last June, deserves the provincial government’s attention. Joneil Hanna, 17, was killed early in the morning of June 10 while walking home from a graduation party attended by CBRP officers. The boy’s parents, John Parr and Jenn Hanna, as well as some witnesses, have raised troubling questions about what really happened and how and why that conflicts with the police’s version of events.
Sewell’s point — that police officers have their own unique culture and tend to protect each other, leading to an erosion in public trust in policing — is reinforced in a 2014 review of national and international academic literature on the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP (CRCC)’s website.
“As long as police are seen as the sole investigators and adjudicators of complaints, the PIP process lacks complete public credibility and legitimacy,” the study said.
Sewell, a former mayor of Toronto and member of the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, was also rightly critical of Justice Minister Mark Furey’s public statements on the Hanna case. Furey publicly supported CBRP’s ability to fairly investigate the case within days of Hanna’s death.
The minister, an ex-police officer himself, should have anticipated his comments would be seen, as Sewell notes, as him not being open to the possibility the Cape Breton force was at fault. Instead of asserting, as Furey did, that this province already has “the best system” for investigating police misconduct in Canada — a dubious claim — Nova Scotia should instead be looking to further incorporate civilian involvement in such investigations.
We’re not saying HRP won’t do an impartial probe into the Hanna death. We’re saying the public must be satisfied that’s what happened. Erosion of public trust in police does not serve Nova Scotians well.