A BOTCHED RCMP RAID

The RCMP is having a hard time learning the importance of responding
effectively and quickly to public complaints -- and is paying a
mounting price in eroded public confidence.

Last November, officers from the RCMP Emergency Response Team smashed
in the door of a Surrey apartment where three men were drinking tea
around 10 p.m.

The officers had search warrants for apartments 201 and 206. They
called out "Unit 206, come out" from the hallway.

The three men in the apartment answered by saying that they were in Unit 205.

The RCMP officers released a dog into the room. The dog bit one man
and dragged him from the apartment to the hall, where he says he was
kicked and punched. It then bit a second man and dragged the third
man from the apartment.

All three men say they were beaten. They have photos showing the
bloody dog bites.

The RCMP has apologized and acknowledged the men had done nothing wrong.

But six months after the nightmarish incident, the RCMP has offered
no explanation. An internal review has been done by a senior officer,
but the RCMP won't release the findings. No officers have been
disciplined or procedures changed.

The three men have filed a complaint with the Commission for Public
Complaints Against the RCMP.

Police have reason for caution in conducting searches. In this case,
drugs, a gun and Taser were found in the other apartments.

But not in the apartment occupied by the three men, who say they have
no criminal records or involvement.

The incident raises several questions. How could police misread the
apartment number? Why was the dog sent to attack people who were not
resisting (and what would have happened if a child had been in the
apartment)? Were the men beaten, as they maintain?

These questions are not complex. The only people to interview are the
three men and the officers.

Yet after six months, the RCMP is unable to provide the public with
any information about what went wrong, and what has been done to
ensure other innocent victims won't go through the same experience.

No one should expect perfection from the RCMP, or any other police
force, given the challenging job. They have a right, though, to
expect competence and accountability.