Pubdate: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON) Copyright: 2005 The Ottawa Citizen Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326 Author: Randall Denley IT'S TIME TO QUESTION POLICE How many times will Ottawa police have to foul up before our city politicians start asking some serious questions about the quality of police leadership? Police Chief Vince Bevan appeared at the police services board yesterday to share his thoughts on the growing catalogue of dubious police behaviour. He did apologize to the demonstrator that police zapped with a Taser, but other than that, it was a few more choruses of Stand By Your Man. The chief continued to imply that the wiretap case his force got spanked for was somehow the Crown attorneys' fault, and had the nerve to speak of the police role as "guardians of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms." And after that astounding exercise in denial, how many questions do you think the police services board members fired at him? Zero. Not one. You are represented on the board by Mayor Bob Chiarelli, councillors Eli El-Chantiry and Michel Bellemare, and four civilian appointees. They are the chief's bosses, but they must also be the only seven people in town who have absolutely no questions about any of the force's troubles. It just never seems to end for the Ottawa police. They had two public floggings last week, almost a slow week by their current standards. The most serious came at the hands of defence lawyers representing the family of Nnanyere Obiorah. You might remember Chapter 1 of the Obiorah story, in which drug charges against him were dropped because the court said a judge had been misled by police when they applied for a wiretap. Defence lawyers scored again when they argued it was wrong for an Ottawa police sergeant to threaten to charge Obiorah's family if he didn't confess to gun and drug charges. Charges against the family were dropped by federal and provincial Crown attorneys. Police management was also rapped by an adjudicator for the province's information and privacy commissioner for failing to properly respond to a Citizen request for details of their emergency plans and assessment of the way police handled two international summits. The Obiorah family members and their defence lawyer have made a serious allegation. We don't know if it's true, but the situation cries out for an investigation. If this is really how the Ottawa police conduct themselves, it's unacceptable. Given the seriousness of the allegations, an investigation by an outside police force would be preferable, just so we all know it's objective. Equally troubling is the comment by Ontario Court Justice Hugh Fraser that one of his colleagues was misled by police when she approved the wiretap. If true, that's damaging to police credibility with judges and Crown attorneys. If we want to convict criminals, it's essential that all elements of our justice system work together. Bevan doesn't want to say too much because the Obiorah case could still be appealed, but the chief has suggested that if the federal and provincial Crown attorneys had properly shared information, the outcome in the wiretap case might have been different. Eugene Williams, chief of the federal prosecution service, earlier said he was "still trying to track down what the chief had in mind when he said what he said." "There may be very little that the provincial Crown might have that will affect the result," Williams said of the judge's decision to throw out the wiretap evidence. Provincial Crown attorney Hilary McCormack didn't want to comment on the wiretap because her office is still prosecuting two homicide charges that flow from it. She certainly didn't jump in to suggest that her office had something to rescue the federal drugs case, and both Crowns say they work closely together. Again, a serious allegation is unanswered. Actually, two. The judge says the police misled the court. The chief says the Crowns dropped the ball. Which is it? We need to know. The appeal period on the Obiorah wiretap decision runs out at the end of the month. When it's over, the chief will no longer be able to hide behind the "it's before the courts" defence. Things will go wrong in any organization, and the nature of police work offers more scope for error than most. The question is, what happens when things do go wrong? Is there an honest, open investigation and sharing of information with the public, or are the wagons circled? So far, it seems that all the meaningful oversight of the Ottawa police comes from outside groups called in after things have gotten off track. Chiarelli and Bellemare later called for independent review of police conduct, the same recommendation made by a provincial inquiry six months ago. Good stuff, but what are they going to do about the chief's conduct? They are responsible for that. Policing is arguably the most important service the city offers, and it is the responsibility of all councillors, not just those on the police services board. Do any of them have the courage to speak up, or are they happy with the recent performance of the Ottawa police and their chief? - --- MAP posted-by: Beth