Time to be open

Police accountability is not a duty that can be only partly fulfilled. It’s no use to be somewhat transparent, offering up certain details for public consumption while concealing others.

Last May, Toronto police started releasing parts of Chief Mark Saunders’s reports on probes by Ontario’s police watchdog, citing “the importance of public disclosure, accountability and transparency.”

Given that the Special Investigations Unit does not make public its reports on police-involved deaths, injuries or sexual assault allegations, a report from the chief on SIU investigations could provide much-needed openness.

And yet Saunders keeps a portion of his reports on SIU findings confidential.

This practice of pick-and-choose transparency must stop. It amounts to little more than censorship and enables police to quietly sweep unfavourable SIU findings under the rug.

Arecent SIU probe alleged that, after Toronto police shot a robbery suspect in 2015, one officer tried to access and copy security footage of the incident, thereby “threatening to undermine the integrity” of the SIU’s investigation.

Toronto police say Saunders dealt with the allegation in a private portion of his ensuing report. In the public version, however, the chief said only that the SIU had cleared officers of wrongdoing in the non-fatal shooting.

Saunders’ omission is all the more glaring given that this is the second time in under a year the SIU has accused a Toronto officer of inappropriately trying to access video of a shooting.

In fact, the SIU cites a dozen instances in which officers have appeared not to co-operate with the watchdog’s investigations.

These incidents suggest Toronto police and the SIU are, at least at times, working at cross-purposes. Saunders’ failure to deal publicly with all SIU findings inspires little confidence that this will change.

Open and honest acknowledgment of institutional errors is the obvious first step to correcting them. How, after all, can the public hold police to account if we have to guess what information might have been scrubbed from their reports?

Ontario is reviewing police oversight practices. Resulting recommendations must include more complete reporting practices.

Public reporting is worthless if it’s used to communicate only good news and positive findings. Saunders must come clean about all aspects of SIU investigations, not only the ones that suit his force.

Public reporting is worthless if it’s used to communicate only good news