B.C.’s new office to examine serious police incidents will not be equipped to fully address accountability issues dogging the province’s police agencies, says a long-time RCMP observer and police expert.
The civilian-led Independent Investigations Office (IIO) is set to start operations in B.C. on Sept. 10. The office’s mandate is to conduct criminal investigations into incidents resulting in death or serious harm when a member of any B.C. policy agency is involved, including the provincial RCMP.
“The idea of [the IIO] is touted as the answer to the issue of accountability—it simply is not,” says Robert Gordon, director of the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University.
Gordon says the IIO will help address the specific conflict of interest issues that arise when police are called to investigate their own colleagues after serious incidents, but these instances are relatively rare.
