VANCOUVER POLICE CHIEF MUST ADDRESS RCMP CONCERNS

The Vancouver police department is clearly angry at downtown
"activists" it feels are simply bent on causing trouble. But it should
have enough discipline not to over-react to them.

Chief Jamie Graham recently held a news conference announcing that an
RCMP report on abuse allegations against some of his officers had
found his department, well, clean as driven snow.

"Both the RCMP and the Vancouver police investigators concluded there
was not a single case of criminal activity by a Vancouver police
officer -- not one," Graham said.

Now criminal activity may not have been involved. But the Mounties'
investigation, ordered by B.C. Police Complaints Commissioner Dirk
Ryneveld, concluded that nine of the complaints against VPD officers
were fully or partially substantiated.

As Ryneveld told columnist Mike Roberts in today's Province: "Where it may
be true to say the RCMP did not find criminal allegations, it is not true to
say they did not find disciplinary defaults by the officers."

Now, we all know a police officer's job is not easy, and that the vast
majority of those in Vancouver are hard-working and law-abiding. But
bad apples who think they have more latitude in dealing with a poor
Downtown Eastside person have to be set straight.

The VPD is ill-served by a police chief whose knee-jerk reaction in
the face of criticism is to haul out the whitewash.