Currently, in the province of B.C we have a Police internal investigation system which is questionable at best. When an inquiry is called the police investigate themselves, many times involving officers investigating colleagues. This creates an unacceptable amount of bias in our justice system and fails to deliver an impartial or credible investigative process to the tax payer.

The primary role of these internal investigations is to maintain public confidence in the Police. Sadly, in the past 16 years the have been 267 police involved-deaths. One of the victims was Frank Paul, a native man from New Brunswick, who was removed from a Vancouver Police Department lockup and was left in a nearby alley by a police officer where he later died of hypothermia. It is obvious that the current system is flawed, and that a new more transparent system will cause officers involved to take more responsibility for their actions.

Protection has always been an important part of any civilized society. In our society, the Police have the responsibility for our protection and ensuring the continued safety of citizens. After the recent tasering of Robert Dziekanski, recent light has been spilt on how the Police conduct investigations in BC. B.C is the only province in which internal investigations are handled by the police. Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Quebec all have successful independently run civilian review boards.

For these reasons we feel there needs to be a change in the way Police investigate internal incidents. We request that a new, non-partisan, unbiased system be set up similar to Ontarios SIU in order to feel safe, secure in our person and to bring back community confidence in our Police services.

It is our hope that the sincere wishes of the public can be heard and a system introduced that provides transparency and accountability by the Police, to the public.