Is it time for the Mounties to ride off into the sunset?

The recent death of a Polish immigrant at Vancouver airport at the hand of an RCMP taser gun, has added more discussion points for the debate over policing in British Columbia.

With the recent attention drawn to a number of high profile deaths in custody in Northern British Columbia and spiraling gang violence in the Vancouver area, there are a few calls being made for the province of British Columbia to terminate its contract with the RCMP and to set up its own police force.

The latest entry to the debate seems to be centered on policing issues around the Lower Mainland and no definitive plan was offered to change the delivery of police services outside of that area.

BC once provided its own policing services with the British Columbia Provincial Police, but they were disbanded in August of 1950 and merged into the RCMP, the federal force which now handles most of the policing in the province, with the exception of a few cities mostly in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island.

The call for a replacement force for the Mounties was made by the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Press provided details on their concerns as well as some reaction to their proposition.

Group says RCMP crisis in B.C. makes it a good time to switch to provincial force
Canadian Press
November 2, 2007

VANCOUVER - Recent events have battered the reputation of the RCMP in British Columbia, calling into question the very core of the operation in the province.

The force's top regional policing officer for the Vancouver area rejects the criticism.

But the head of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association believes the RCMP "crisis" should force politicians to replace the Mounties with a regional force.

The complaints come after two coroners' inquests this year into the RCMP shooting deaths of Kevin St. Arnaud and Ian Bush in the B.C. Interior.

A third inquest is pending into the Vancouver Airport death of a Robert Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant jolted by an RCMP Taser earlier this month.

The idea a regional force could better police the Lower Mainland was levelled after the bodies of six men were found in a Surrey apartment in what appear to be gang-related murders."

There's no question there has been a lot of criticism of the police in the media recently," the RCMP's Lower Mainland district commander Assistant Commissioner Peter German said in an interview with The Canadian Press. "I'm not prepared to accept that is reflective of public opinion,"

Jason Gratl, president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said the public opinion he's hearing is much different."

When you speak to people on the street and even in the boardrooms people are really questioning the lack of political response to this policing crisis," he said.

Gratl said the Mounties' refusal at first to release a bystander's video documenting the death of Dziekanski is an example of the police not being in touch with what the public wants."

I believe the relationship between the RCMP and the citizens of British Columbia has reached a point where the citizens distrust the police and the police distrust the citizens," he said.

German said there are 8,000 RCMP officers working hard for the citizens in the province, 3,000 officers and staff in the Lower Mainland."

The police are not out of control in British Columbia," he said. "In fact there are numerous forms of oversight."

Not only is there public oversight, there's a free media ... but within the legal system there are criminal investigations. Police officers are subject to civil suit."

Gratl said the time is ripe for a B.C. police force."Happily we can afford it at this time," he said. "There's never been a better time to consolidate police management policy and civilian oversight. The Police Act is currently being rewritten."

Gratl said B.C. Solicitor General John Les has to be behind the change."The political question is whether the solicitor general has the guts to withdraw some stature from the RCMP," said Gratl.

Les responded that many jurisdictions in North America consider B.C. to be one of the most integrated policing jurisdictions on the continent."

When people express a desire for a provincial police force, we already have a provincial police force in British Columbia - it's called the RCMP," he said."

I think they do excellent work."On the oversight process, Les said the Mounties are already working on a pilot project to harmonize the provincial and federal complaints process.

Les said he's already seen proof of that because RCMP in B.C. asked the federal complaints office to monitor an investigation into the death involving the police Taser at Vancouver airport right from the start."

They are not brushing off the need for a different model of monitoring complaints."

German said there's no need to make any changes."

Really, integration is working very well in the Lower Mainland in terms of police forces," the Mountie said. "And some would say that the concept of regional policing is almost passe."

He said Lower Mainland communities, with more than two million residents, are comfortable with their local police forces and the current model is working."

The important thing is to then to deal with the high-end crime, the crime that crosses jurisdictions," said German. "

We attempt to deal with that by way of integrated units and speciality squads."Vancouver's gang problem isn't unlike other big cities in Canada, he said, and noted the homicide rate connected to Lower Mainland gangs has dropped this year."

The threat to the average citizen is probably fairly minimal," said German. "

Unfortunately the recent incident in Surrey tells how tragic these shootings can be."

Two of the six men killed in a Surrey apartment were innocent bystanders - one a fireplace serviceman, the other a young resident of another apartment.

Police said that the four other men murdered were connected to gangs and the drug trade.