IIO chief was determined to be ready on Day 1

VICTORIA — When Richard Rosenthal took on the position as head of the new police watchdog he made it clear the team wouldn’t open their doors until every hair was in place.

That decision was vindicated when, mere hours after making the announcement the Independent Investigations Office was fully operational, staff were called to their first case in Prince George.

Rosenthal, the office’s chief civilian director, and his team of 10 investigators took three days to complete their preliminary investigation into the Sept. 10 shooting of Greg Matters.

But the former Los Angeles County district attorney wasn’t surprised by the speed at which the group was required to jump into action.

“What I took away [from that] was that I was just so happy I insisted that we be ready on Day 1 because as much as we talk about what could happen, particularly with instances like this, you never know,” he told The Citizen.

Though each case is a learning experience, Rosenthal said he was pleased at how quickly the group was able to deploy.

The office was notified of the incident at 7:36 p.m. the day of the incident and the first of the group’s members was in Prince George and on the scene by shortly after midnight.

But that’s not to say the team – half of which are former police officers – didn’t run into any problems.

Getting transportation and accommodations sorted out were unforeseen challenges.

“Apparently there was something going on in the city that all the hotel rooms seemed to be sold out, all the rental cars were gone and it took a lot of work to get everyone those necessities,” Rosenthal recalled.

That experience brought up more questions and concerns, such as what sort of challenges would the group face when they were called into remote areas of the province?

“And it’s not like we can really buy a stash of cars to leave up north because it’s too expensive,” Rosenthal said. “We’ve got to balance the needs of the office against making sure that it’s an appropriate use of public resources.”

The American transplant praised the local RCMP for doing their best to let him know what he was going to be in for in Prince George.

He said he was “very impressed” by North District command staff when they met with him prior to the office opening.

“They were extraordinarily helpful as far as warning us ahead of time of some of the equipment needs we’d have, the challenges we’d find,” Rosenthal said. “So in that sense, I felt that we were pretty well prepared.”