Police shouldn’t investigate their own street-check policy: rights advocates
VANCOUVER — Indigenous and civil rights groups complain that the Vancouver Police Department should not be responsible for investigating itself over the issue of significant racial disparity in the department’s use of street checks.
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association and Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs had asked the province’s police complaints commissioner to review the issue, but were told earlier this month that the department would conduct an internal investigation and report to the police board in September.
In a letter to the board, the groups say that while it is customary for the police department to investigate policy complaints, they believe a self-investigation in this situation is “problematic” for its lack of independence or appearance of a lack of independence.
Comments by Chief Const. Adam Palmer to media in the wake of the complaint, in which he says street checks are neither random nor arbitrary and are not based on ethnicity, create an impression that the police department formed a conclusion before conducting an investigation, the groups say.