The agency keeping an eye on police in B.C. says they are unable to retain staff due to high workload and low wages.
The Independent Investigations Office of BC, which has in the past come under fire for the slow pace of its investigations, says they were called to six incidents between April 1 and 3.
Two of those were officer-involved shootings.
In a news release Monday, the organization says the surge in new cases highlights problems the watchdog has with staffing. Complex investigations into police shootings need up to eight investigators. Each IIO squad consists of 10 investigators when there are no vacancies, and one team is on call each week.
“Currently, the IIO has only 24 investigators out of the 30 we would have if fully staffed. In recent years, we have not been successful in reaching a full staffed unit. This is attributable to our inability to offer competitive wages and restrictions in the hiring and retention processes,” said chief civilian director Ronald J. MacDonald.
“For example, other law enforcement agencies such as police departments offer higher base salaries, and with overtime pay, this equates to tens of thousands of dollars more than the IIO can offer per year.”
MacDonald says this has tied the hands of IIO recruiters.
“I am tremendously proud of our team for how they conduct themselves and support each other during times of high workload, but more must be done to reflect their efforts.”
Because they are excluded employees of the BC Public Service, IIO investigators are not entitled to overtime pay per the terms of their employment.
Dr. Rob Gordon, a professor at Simon Fraser University’s school of criminology, says the IIO team has done good work and their concerns need to be taken seriously.
"The whole idea of this is that there would be an independent, efficient, effective, professional group that could respond to these complaints against police so the police would not be, as it were, investigating themselves when there were concerns,” says Gordon. "It does sound very much as if the IIO’s role has been taken seriously, as a consequence they’re getting the calls.”
Gordon has been reading their reports and says the issues they’re having will have a real impact. And it won’t be a positive one, he tells Glacier Media.
“One is most certainly slowing down their response time and that is something that should not happen and secondly, slowing down the process in actually engaging in an investigation,” he says, adding the IIO needs to be meticulous and timely.
“They’re transparent, I think they’re even-handed, they’re fair and they’re impartial in what they do. And from what I can see, their work has been very skilled.”
As a possible solution, Gordon says the IIO could look at how officers are being deployed.
“Not so much with respect to their mandate, but certainly... are they operating as efficiently as they could without abandoning the important principles of transparency, honesty and openness?” the professor says.
“You cannot sacrifice those elements or otherwise the whole purpose will be undermined and that would be a great shame.”
He suggests they could have a quick response team or work on triaging cases.
The IIO investigates all officer-related incidents that result in serious harm or death, whether or not there is any allegation of wrongdoing.
