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?