Police unaccountability:
B.C.’s media are part of the problem

Any reference to the OPCC’s police culture,
let alone its dishonesty, is off limits to mainstream journalists

 

In an extremely rare occurrence for B.C.’s mainstream media, a Vancouver Sun online story included a critical statement about the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner. But within hours the Sun deleted the statement. It didn’t appear in print, either.

Stories that appear in print often have to be edited for space considerations. But the Sun’s print version did find room for irrelevant remarks about Expo 86 and the family of deputy police complaint commissioner Rollie Woods.

The two versions of the story appear below.

That’s not the first time the Vancouver Sun edited a story in such a manner. In the paper’s July 22, 2010, online edition, Sun reporter Kim Bolan stated that no one at the OPCC was answering media calls about Vancouver police constable Taylor Robinson’s assault on a handicapped woman.

The OPCC have a lot to answer for. They not only know the VPD tried to cover up the assault, but they most likely took part in the cover-up themselves.

The fact that the OPCC staff enjoy friendly relations with the media make their unavailability all the more strange. But that reference to the OPCC’s unavailability was deleted from the print edition.

With maybe just one exception, no one in B.C.’s mainstream media has criticized the OPCC. The discrepancies between the Sun’s earlier online stories and the later versions of the same stories suggest that this isn’t just a sin of omission. It could be an editorial policy imposed from above.

 

Here’s the earlier version of the Sun’s online story about Rollie Woods’ appointment to deputy policy complaint commissioner.

Ex-Vancouver police inspector to take over
as deputy police complaint commissioner

Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun, March 29, 2011

VANCOUVER — A former Vancouver police inspector will take over the position of deputy police complaint commissioner on Friday, replacing Bruce Brown, who is retiring.

Rollie Woods, 56, spent 22 years with the Vancouver police department, which he joined in 1986 after spending six years with the Edmonton police.

“In 1986, we came here for Expo and fell in love with the city,” Woods recalled Tuesday. He is married with three children.

Woods began his career with the RCMP, where he spent seven years.

During his time with Vancouver’s police force, he was in charge of media relations, professional standards and district one, which includes downtown Vancouver.

Since his retirement from the force in 2008, Woods has spent the last three years as a senior policy analyst with the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC), a civilian-oversight agency based in Victoria.

The OPCC has jurisdiction over complaints against 11 municipal police forces in B.C., transit police, a tribal police force and the Organized Crime Agency.

Critics of the OPCC have said there are too many former police officers work for the agency.

The head of the OPCC is commissioner Stan Lowe, a former prosecutor and spokesman for the Criminal Justice Branch, which oversees criminal prosecutions in B.C.

Last year, then solicitor-general Kash Heed vowed to bring the thousands of RCMP officers in B.C. under the jurisdiction of the B.C. police complaints process before the RCMP renews its contract for policing communities across the province.

Complaints against the RCMP are now handled by an Ottawa-based commission.

The B.C. government has also promised to set up a civilian-led Independent Investigations Office, a civilian agency that would investigate police-involved deaths or serious injury.

The move was recommended by the Thomas Braidwood commission of inquiry into the death of Robert Dziekanski, who died after he was confronted by four Mounties and tasered at Vancouver International Airport.

 

Here’s the later online version, which also appeared in the print edition. This version is missing the one critical sentence but found room for irrelevant remarks.

New deputy complaint commissioner named

Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun, March 30, 2011

A former Vancouver police inspector will take over the position of deputy police complaint commissioner on Friday, replacing Bruce Brown, who is retiring.

Rollie Woods, 56, spent 22 years with the Vancouver police department, which he joined in 1986 after six years with the Edmonton police.

“In 1986, we came here for Expo and fell in love with the city,” Woods recalled Tuesday. He is married with three children.

Woods began his career with the RCMP, where he spent seven years. During his time with Vancouver’s police force, he was in charge of media relations, professional standards and District One, which includes downtown Vancouver. Since his retirement from the force in 2008, Woods has been a senior policy analyst with the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, a civilianoversight agency based in Victoria.

The police complaint commissioner is Stan T. Lowe.

The office has jurisdiction over complaints against the 13 municipal police forces in B.C.

[End of Sun story]

More about corrupt ex-cop and B.C. deputy
police complaint commissioner Rollie Woods here
More about the B.C. media’s feeble coverage
of police accountability issues here and here
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