Civilian panel is best judge of police, city told Police board not qualified to monitor investigations, vice-chairman says

Zev Singer The
Ottawa Citizen

John Balkwill, vice-chairman of Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services, said yesterday he is better qualified than any city police board to judge which of the province's 69 police forces conduct proper investigations of their own officers.

Mr. Balkwill is the provincially appointed overseer of policing who, from his Toronto office, inspects and regulates the policies and performances of all Ontario's police forces. The former Kanata dentist, who practised until three years ago when he was appointed to his current position, also oversees police boards, comprised of politicians and citizens that monitor those police forces.

Sparks flew this week between Mr. Balkwill and Ottawa Councillor Jacques Legendre, vice-chairman of the city's police board. Mr. Legendre says the board is being kept "in the dark," and he needs more information about how internal investigations are being done so that he can do his job as a watchdog.

In response, Mr. Balkwill warned that Mr. Legendre was stepping "over the line" and warned the councillor to back off.

Yesterday, Mr. Balkwill said Mr. Legendre and his colleagues shouldn't try to evaluate how well Ottawa police do at investigating their own officers, because they cannot compare the Ottawa force to others in the province.

"They don't know what's going on in other services. We do," Mr. Balkwill said. "We can see if what is being done in Ottawa is reasonable under the circumstances in comparison to the rest of the police services. How is Legendre able to assess Ottawa under those circumstances? He can't. And, quite frankly, it's none of his business."

Mr. Balkwill said that in his position, he is much better able to assess how well the different forces investigate themselves.

"I have a pretty good reading on who does a good job and who doesn't do a good job. And we base that on what we hear back in the way of appeals," he said.

When he thinks a force is not investigating itself properly, he can step in.

Citing an unnamed force in the province, he said: "I just don't like the way they do it and I don't let them investigate."

He can and will do this at his discretion, he said.

"I can simply say, 'Screw it, you're not doing it,'" Mr. Balkwill explained.

In less drastic cases, he can simply call a police force and tell them to fix a problem he has spotted.

"If I start to notice, either through appeal or directly receiving the complaint, that we've got a situation, I make inquiries," he said. "For instance, we noticed that one service had, in our opinion, far too many 'informal resolutions.' We asked them to come in here and talk to us about it."

He said that he spoke to Ottawa police Chief Vince Bevan last summer when he noticed, from a complaint that came directly to his office, that the Ottawa force was taking a long time investigating a case of domestic violence.

He says he told the chief to get more manpower and to get approval from the Ottawa police board to increase manpower for the entire force, an increase the board approved during recent budget deliberations.

The adjustments he makes to the province's police forces are possible, he said, because of the extra information he has that police board members don't. When you only have statistical information, he said, you cannot really judge how a force is doing.

In fact, Mr. Balkwill said, the raw statistical data can be quite misleading. He illustrated the point by addressing the statistic regarding the number of complaints against Ottawa police officers relative to officers on other large forces in Ontario.

According to data provided by Mr. Balkwill's office for the year 2000, of the 10 largest forces in the province, the Ottawa force has the most complaints against it per officer. Ottawa's complaints per officer ratio is 44 per cent higher than the next closest force.

Mr. Balkwill said, however, that the statistic is not very meaningful because "all kinds of factors" affect how many complaints get made in a particular city.

"You can't go by those numbers," he said. He explained that in a given city, the number of complaints can be dramatically skewed by one person who chronically complains and files dozens of complaints. He is aware of several cases like that in the province, he said.

Mr. Balkwill said one factor behind the high number of complaints in Ottawa is the frequent demonstrations. For large demonstrations like the recent G20 summit, some of the complaints might relate to officers who were borrowed from other forces.

For that reason, Mr. Balkwill said that using straight statistics on the number of complaints a force receives is misleading.

"If we could somehow parcel out the complaint as 'Joe Smith gets arrested at a bar on Sparks Street,' or 'Joe Smith gets arrested at his home and does he have a complaint about being beaten up?' that would be of far more interest, because the numbers get altered for all these reasons," Mr. Balkwill said.

Jacques Legendre said that is exactly the problem he is having with the quarterly reports he is asked to use to monitor the way the force handles complaints.

"That was my original complaint," he said. "I can't make head or tail of it. Thank you, Mr. Balkwill."

Mr. Legendre said he is not suggesting that Ottawa has a bad police force.

"I just want the board to be able to do its job," he said, which according to the Police Services Act, includes the responsibility to "review the chief of police's administration of the complaints system."

Mr. Legendre said he thought the high number of complaints the Ottawa force receives might be due simply to the force doing a good job of informing the public about the complaints process. He added, however, that if he were less "in the dark" he might have better answers on the subject.

"That's the problem," he said.
 
 

Ottawa Citizen Editorial

Policing police, in the open

Friday, April 26, 2002

Ottawa's police officers have nothing to fear from the release of complaint summaries to members of the Ottawa Police Services Board, who are supposed to be overseeing the force's operations.

This issue has been raised by one of the city councillors on the police board, Jacques Legendre. Mr. Legendre says the statistical reports he receives about police conduct are useless, and he is right. What does a sheet of paper with some numbers on it tell you about the way police are handling these complaints? Very little.

Statistics can be meaningless. If a disgruntled group decides to flood the police with complaints, the statistical picture can be very misleading. A great police force can look statistically suspicious. Conversely, a weak police force could have very few complaints about conduct simply because it discourages complaints or members of the public are cynical about anything being done. To rely solely on charts of numbers is simplistic and misleading.

The members of the police services board have the responsibility to oversee the Ottawa police, a very important function, since the police exercise great powers and investigate their own members when there's a complaint. How can the board members do their job if they have no idea of the substance of complaints against the force? How can they assure the public that complaints are dealt with in a timely fashion, for instance? And should the civilians who oversee the police not have some flavour of the complaints against the force? The Police Services Act specifically says the board shall "review the chief of police's administration of the complaints system." How is this possible without knowing the substance of complaints?

There really isn't a downside to being open about the operations of the police force. Summaries of these cases don't have to be released until all avenues of appeal are exhausted by the parties. Names of complaining citizens can be expunged to protect privacy, as can the names of officers. The point is not singling out officers, unless their conduct brings charges under the Police Services Act and a public hearing for discipline is held.

The point is to have civilians who have the legal responsibility to oversee the police knowing what the police are doing.

Institutions often retreat to a defensive posture when people suggest this kind of public information should be shared with the public. Local institutional boards fought open meetings for years. But when they conduct their meetings in public, as the National Arts Centre did at the insistence of former Ottawa mayor Jim Watson, suddenly it's a non-issue. For years, the salary levels of local university presidents were an issue, since most of the universities' money comes from taxpayers and there was great controversy about their spending priorities. When Richard Van Loon took over at Carleton, he deflated the fuss overnight by stating his salary and explaining that he was worth every cent of it.

Complaints about the conduct of military personnel are summarized and published in the cause of open government. The same is true for complaints about judges. Surely the same transparency is due for the police. It's the best way of reassuring citizens that the police are policing their own and have nothing to hide.
 

Dave Brown  The Ottawa Citizen

Police complaints watchdog must be accountable to public

Friday, April 26, 2002

I know John Balkwill will think it's none of my business, but people who don't want to be identified because they're afraid of bad guys have no business being in any way associated with police work -- with the exception of officers working undercover.

The recently discovered vice-chairman of the Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services showed up in this newspaper yesterday, telling Ottawa Councillor Jacques Legendre that when it comes to police complaints, he should mind his own business. Mr. Legendre is vice-chairman of the Ottawa Police Services Board.

The reason for the reference to Mr. Balkwill being discovered is that, until yesterday, who knew the former Kanata dentist who has been wielding his power from obscurity?

If anybody wondered why the photo of Mr. Balkwill yesterday looked as if he wasn't given a chance to comb his hair, it was because he didn't want to be photographed. Caught first in the eye of the camera and then in the eye of a media storm, he handled the crisis in his preferred manner. He disappeared.

He talked to Citizen reporter Zev Singer yesterday and concluded with the news that for the rest of the day he would not be available for comment.

That spoiled my day. Police complaints have been one of my favourite subjects over the decades. Police have special powers and must be accountable.

Mr. Balkwill indicated he had few problems with the way police handled complaints in-house. I wanted to get his views on a complaint sitting on this desk. Six months ago, an Ottawa police officer knocked on the door of a Barrhaven home at 11:30 p.m. and ordered the parents to get their 12-year-old son dressed immediately. The officer was placing the boy under arrest for break, enter and theft.

The child was taken out of the home in handcuffs, placed in a cruiser and taken to the Barrhaven station for booking. His mother followed in another car. Father kept the home fires burning. Mother and son returned after 2 a.m.

"I grew up trained to trust authority,'' says father. (Because of the boy's age, nobody can be identified if it could lead to the identity of the accused.) "My first instinct was to co-operate. The officer was aggressive. I thought: Whatever it is, I hope (son) learns a lesson.''

Then he learned it was a complaint about the boy's behaviour while trick-or-treating. It was Halloween night. Somebody reported the boy had taken more candies than he should have while in their home. There are side issues, but that's the nut of it.

The parents of the accused say he's a good boy with a trouble-free history. Now father got angry. He filed a formal complaint against the arresting officer.

The accused never appeared in court. The parents were told the issue would be put through a mediation process. Somebody would get in touch. They're still waiting.

Nobody told them that to protect officers, there's a six-month deadline on complaints. If the complaint isn't resolved within that time period, the officer is pretty much off the hook.

With only a few days to go to the deadline, and with the police complaints issue heating up Wednesday, I made a call to the police media relations office and asked for an update on the file.

The next morning I was told there was indeed a complaint and it was under investigation. No further comment.

Father also received a call and was told somebody would wrap it up for him sometime next week.

The question I couldn't find anybody to answer is: Will the timing let the officer off the hook?

Some new questions and observations from the dad: "Do police not know or care about the damage they do to themselves in a case like this? I was raised to trust police and to jump in and help if they ever needed it.

"I don't think I would do that now. I tried to raise my son to trust authority, but that has been lost. Who should he trust?''

As for Mr. Balkwill's concern about being recognized: There's a name and face at the top of this column and it's going to tick off a lot of people with guns.

Any job worth doing requires some amount of sticking out of one's neck. Timidity isn't a useful asset.

Dave Brown is the Citizen's senior editor. Send e-mail to dbrown@thecitizen.southam.ca
Read previous columns by Dave Brown at www.ottawacitizen.com