SIU report: Don't ignore Marin (Windsor Star)

THE WINDSOR STAR
Editorial
Dec 16, 2011 
 
Ontario's ombudsman has just issued a 63-page report that exposes how police forces across the province are sabotaging the Special Investigations Unit, the independent civilian watchdog created to keep cops in check.

The scathing document by Andre Marin, titled Oversight Undermined, provides a litany of ways in which police services have thumbed their noses at the SIU, failing to report serious incidents involving officers and refusing to respond to questions.

Indeed, police refused to co-operate in more than onethird of the 658 cases investigated by the SIU over the last four years. Marin said SIU director Ian Scott sent 287 "polite" letters to police chiefs about these serious issues and received only 20 "substantive responses" in return. Some chiefs, like Windsor's Gary Smith, didn't bother to respond at all. "I've seen nothing that jumps out at me that requires a response," he said when asked by The Star.

Marin points out that lawyers are vetting officers' notes of incidents destined for SIU. Not only do they decide which version of events will become official, the same lawyers are representing both the officers under investigation and the officers who witnessed the events.

The list of examples is long, and simply reinforces public perception that in Ontario, police officers are untouchable and unaccountable for their actions. What the public didn't know, until now, is that the Office of the Attorney-General is complicit in all of this.

Marin says the office has "deliberately undermined" the SIU's ability to do its job, with ministry officials "systematically" discouraging Scott from going public with tales from the trenches.

"It is long past due for the Special Investigations Unit to be provided with the necessary powers and authority to carry out its mandate effectively, credibly and transparently," the ombudsman writes.

Most of us assumed the SIU had been exercising that power and authority since its creation in 1990. To discover that serious incidents like altercations between civilians and police were never reported - and therefore never investigated - is shocking.

The already rocky relationship seems to have deteriorated irrevocably under the stewardship of Chris Bentley, who was attorney-general when a 2009 internal briefing indicated the government would not make the legislative changes needed to give the SIU sufficient clout.

In response to a report by Marin in 2008, in which he called the agency a "toothless tiger," someone from the AG's office wrote: "He usually gets his media hit off report releases and then moves on."

Rest assured the public is not prepared to move on. With more and more incidents of serious police incidents coming to light - some of them right here, in Windsor and Essex County - citizens expect the government to follow through on all 46 of Marin's 2011 recommendations.

That's the responsibility of new Attorney-General Jim Gerretsen, and the sooner this process begins, the better. Among the changes that must be implemented: Fewer former police officers at the agency, fines and imprisonment for those who refuse to co-operate with investigations, and a clear description of what constitutes a "serious injury incident." These rules must be legislated and compliance must be mandatory.

Contrary to what officers in Ontario's 58 police forces might think, they are not above the law.

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