106 B.C. cops guilty of misconduct in past 2 years: CBC investigation

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

Boy I hate reading this type of thing. I have every ounce (or gram for metric folk) of respect for Police Officers, but obviously, this really hurts their credibility.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-col...uct-cases.html

Sexual advances to superiors' wives, drunk driving and consorting with criminals are among 106 proven cases of misconduct of municipal police officers in B.C. over the past two years, CBC News has learned. Eight of the officers were to be fired but resigned before their disciplinary proceedings began or ended, according to a report by the British Columbia Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner. CBC News requested that the office compile the data to find out how many police officers in B.C. conducted themselves inappropriately on the job. The figures include various municipal police forces in the province but not the RCMP. Of the eight cases in which officers were to be fired, the majority involved dishonesty and cheating, although in one case the officer was caught accessing child pornography, the report says. In one case, "the officer had disclosed confidential information to an individual suspected of criminal activity." The officer's rank was reduced for one year, and he had to get remedial training and work under close supervision during that period. A public hearing was ordered, but the officer resigned before the hearing began. 16 officers resigned; 8 were to be fired In total, 16 officers resigned after being found guilty of misconduct. The 106 proven cases of police misconduct were recorded between Oct. 1, 2006, and Oct. 1, 2008. They resulted from "substantiated allegations" filed directly to or being referred to the B.C. police complaint commissioner's office. The maximum recommended disciplinary measure — outside of dismissal — was a five-day suspension without pay for a hit-and-run case. In that case, the officer, although off-duty when the crash occurred, fled the scene on foot. The officer was later charged with impaired driving and hit and run. In another case, "while off-duty and highly intoxicated," an officer "made inappropriate sexual advances towards the wives of two senior officers." The officer received "managerial advice" and voluntarily enrolled in an alcohol counselling program. Another off-duty officer "was rude and abusive to a female staff member at a night club" while intoxicated. That incident did not warrant disciplinary measures, the commissioner decided. Misuse, accidental discharge of firearm There are five proven cases of misconduct involving drinking and driving. In one case, "while off-duty, the officer was stopped and issued a 24-hour driving prohibition." A two-day suspension without pay was proposed, but the officer resigned before the disciplinary proceeding concluded. Several cases of misuse or accidental discharge of firearm were also substantiated. In one of those cases, "when arresting two males following an altercation at a nightclub, an officer inappropriately took one of the males to the ground with a hip toss and inappropriately deployed his Taser." The officer was suspended without pay for three days and re-assigned to other duties. In another case, "during a physical struggle with a suspect, an officer shot the suspect with his firearm." The proposed punishment was dismissal, but the officer resigned prior to the conclusion of the disciplinary proceedings. The suspect in this case recovered fully.

[Ziroc]

Wow.... that's sad.. and a bit scary.
At least the busted them. This will scare the rest straight hopefully, eh?

[VulcanRider]

WOW -- I thought this would be an article about how officials have been abusing their positions of authority for over 2000 years. (106 B.C.) Which I'd bet is also true.

OK, so all 106 incidents were caused by 16 officers? Just shows how a few bad apples can ruin the image of the whole bunch. I do think anyone who puts on a badge should be held to a higher standard of behavior, and these people needed to lose their jobs, at least. For the actual illegal behavior they should be prosecuted just like any other citizen, with the exception of automatic maximum sentence since they should know better.

[Bungleau]

Hmmm... not clear to me how many specific officers were involved. 16, 24, or 106? And I'm not sure how to relate that to anything... saying I found 106 bad apples in a batch means something, but if I tell you the batch had 110 apples, it means a whole lot more than if the batch had ten million apples.

I do agree... being of the law doesn't put you above the law. If anything, you end up under more scrutiny because of it. Or should.

What bothers me is the impact this has on the good cops out there... and I'm sure there are more good than bad (although I don't have numbers either).

In any case, I'll be sure to be on good behavior (or behaviour, if that makes you feel better, Lav ) next time I'm in BC.

[Felix The Assassin]

In one of those cases, "when arresting two males following an altercation at a nightclub, an officer inappropriately took one of the males to the ground with a hip toss and inappropriately deployed his Taser."

I'm missing something here! We train with some special police units here on post, and combative's [modern military version of hand to hand, AKA: Army UFC] is always a big turn out. Especially when soldiers, marines and cops get to have at each other for three rounds.

Does "inappropriate" mean broken bones or tased in the family jewels area? If not, then the SOB should not be out raising a ruckus and having the police arrive to begin with. If so, same as before. A beat down is one thing, but to hip toss and tase? I would hope that happens each and every time the police have to arrive on such a scene!

What would happen if a German police officer "Polizei" with his spring loaded billy club were to show them how to handle such a situation? Those things are wicked!

[Timber Loftis]

Having met the City of Chicago's #1 cop in the statistics for Tasing people, Mr. Taser-happy I prefer to call him, and having seen what Tasers can do, I generally think that Tasers and other "non lethal" forces such as tear gas, etc., are deployed by the cops in an all-too-common fashion.

About a year ago, Playboy did a writeup on this, and among other things they found a 10-fold (yes, 1,000% increase) in the usage of Tasers and No-Knock Warrants and SWAT-enforced-warrants. The police state isn't just a joke: it's coming to your communities. Among the "mistake" infractions, several innocent people have been killed because the cops enforced warrants on the wrong address or over-reacted to the response of innocent homeowners when they came knocking. It's sad, it's despicable.

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

Yeah, seems like there isn't a week that goes by, that you don't hear about some taser incident.

Is it better than beating the crap out of someone to subdue them though?

There must be other alternatives. Perhaps just being nice? Eh, I'm Canadian; what a' you expect!