B.C.'s new top cop says a civilian unit that will investigate the police in cases of serious injury or death will be in place by the end of the year.
Shirley Bond -- who took over the post of Solicitor-General last week -- told CTV News the province has been drafting legislation related to civilian oversight of the police, but today gave a firm timeline.
"The province has made clear commitments to civilian-led oversight," Bond said. "I look forward very soon to be able to post a job description for the executive director and we intend for the office to be open in 2011."
Bond made her comments in the wake of new questions about how the RCMP handled their own investigation into a bungled 9-1-1 call in Mission in 2008.
A neighbour called saying he had heard gunshots, but when Const. Mike White arrived, he didn't contact the neighbour, didn't get out of the car, and was recorded laughing dismissively about the call.
It turned out that the gunshots were real -- Guthrie McKay had been shot dead, while Lisa Dudley spent four days clinging to life. She died later in hospital.
But it wasn't the RCMP internal investigations that uncovered the laughing phone call -- both the administrative review and the code of conduct review missed it.
It was the civilian-led Alberta Serious Incident Response Team that found the recording.
"For an investigator to miss that, it shows that they took this investigation so lightly, thinking, ‘Why bother?'" said David Eby of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. "That attitude is why the RCMP runs into problems."
In White's discipline hearing on Friday, the RCMP didn't include the laughing phone call in evidence. The adjudicators reprimanded White and docked him a day's pay.
The RCMP explained that on Monday saying that because White had agreed to the reprimand, no further evidence was needed.
But Dudley's family pointed out that the adjudicators only had access to the information read at the hearing -- and with all the information they may have opted for a harsher punishment.
"How can they make a judgment and consequences and hold the officer accountable when all the facts are not there?" said Nina Rivet, an advocate for the family who attended the hearing.
The family is still waiting for a coroners' inquest into the death. The shooter also has yet to be caught.
Bond said the legislation on the civilian-led unit meets the recommendations of the Braidwood Report, which recommended changes to police accountability after the Taser death of Robert Dziekanzki at Vancouver Airport.
The province has contracted the RCMP to provide policing in the province. The contract is up for renewal in 2012, Bond said.
"The discussion of civilian oversight is certainly part of the conversation," Bond said.
Both Ontario and Alberta have civilian units that investigate police in cases of serious injury or death.
