Top cop open to observers
But police chief refuses to exclude cops entirely from police shooting investigations
Montreal’s police chief tells a National Assembly committee studying a bill that would maintain Quebec’s practice of having one force investigate fatal shootings by another that he is open to expanding the role of observers set out in the new bill. “We have to change our way of doing things,” Marc Parent said, acknowledging there is a “perception of a lack of transparency.” Kevin Dougherty reports,
Quebec - On Wednesday, Montreal police chief Marc Parent told a National Assembly committee studying a bill that would maintain Quebec’s practice of having one police force investigate fatal shootings by another that he is open to expanding the role of civilian observers proposed in the new bill, renaming them “accompanying observers.”
On Monday, Ombudsman Raymonde Saint-germain, who recommended two years ago that Quebec follow Ontario’s approach and take such investigations out of the hands of serving police officers, criticized the limited role the observers would have under Bill 46.
“We have to change our way of doing things,” Parent said, recognizing that there is a “perception of a lack of transparency.”
Also Wednesday, François Bérard, a Montréal-nord criminologist, recalled the “very strong reaction” in that community in 2008 after the police shooting of Fredy Villanueva.
Bérard said there is a problem with police “ésprit de corps,” with the perception they protect their own.
“The public has to have the impression that the investigation is independent, transparent and impartial,” Bérard said, endorsing Saint-germain’s proposal for a mixed body of non-police and retired and not-serving police officers to handle such investigations.
Parent told reporters after his testimony that even for a retired police officer “in your head, you remain a police officer.”
“But we have not even tried it,” he added, referring to Bill 46. “People are criticizing the system and, sincerely, the present system works well.
“There is perception of a lack of transparency and a lack of confidence, an impression of chumminess or brotherhood,” Parent said. “But nothing says it doesn’t work.”
Parent said abandoning the present practice for an investigation process, excluding the police, would be a mistake.
“I think we would lose a lot of expertise, a lot of operational flexibility,” he said.
“Expertise doesn’t develop in court and on the crime scene. It develops in investigation situations that are hyper-demanding, that call for a lot of specialization, a lot of knowledge, the capacity to manage highly sensitive events that get a lot of media coverage.
“When our people work together, they talk together, they exchange knowledge.”
By contrast, Parent said, the Ontario investigation process often results in charges that do not stand up in court.
Bill 46 proposes that the civilian observers would not be allowed to visit the death scene, talk to the officers involved or to the officers investigating. They would go through a police liaison officer, who would decide what information they were given.
Parent said he wants to see changes in the bill, making the observers part of the investigating team.
“The role of the observer will be better defined so that he will be a real contributor, in terms of civilian oversight, to make sure we give all the information so that there really is transparency and impartiality and so on,” he said.
Parent favours releasing reports on fatal shootings, but explained keeping the public informed during an investigation could be limited to explaining why ballistics, toxicology, DNA and other testing take so long.
He said the average Montreal police investigation takes 211 days, while the Sûreté du Québec, which usually handles investigations of incidents involving the Montreal force, averages 240 days.
“For me, the spirit of the law is to have, what I understand, what I want, is to have a really significant presence (for the accompanying observers,)” he said. “They are there. They accompany (the investigators) they have the information, that can make up their mind, they can go where they want.”