Inquiry hears egos, cutbacks delayed Pickton investigation
Posted January 24, 2012 8:42 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – A former Vancouver police officer told the Missing Women Inquiry Tuesday that “groupthink” and “tunnel vision” slowed down the Robert Pickton investigation, even though his evidence pointed to a serial killer.
Dr. Kim Rossmo argues the VPD did not buy into the idea of a serial killer early enough, while budget cuts, egos, and a lack of bodies hurt the case.
“The main thing that Vancouver [Police] got wrong, according to the [Deputy Chief Doug] Lepard report and according to my own experiences, was a refusal to accept the serial killer [idea], at least in any timely fashion,” he said.
Rossmo added that because sex trade workers were vanishing there was little public and political pressure on police to find them.
“This failure to find any bodies permitted police management to delay committing to the serial murder scenario. I mean, ultimately they eventually did, but as discussed, this was 12 to 24 months later than it probably should have been.”
Rossmo said he had wanted to put out a news release warning of the potential of a serial killer in 1998 but was shut down by superiors.
Rossmo says he tried to keep working on the case but didn’t get much support.
“It’s very safe to say that the level of communication/cooperation with [VPD] Major Crime [unit] was not at all good.”
He added that if management had really felt a serial killer was at work he is sure they would have fought a lot harder for resources. He left the force in 2000 and Robert Pickton was arrested in 2002.
Rossmo suggests a Metro-wide police force could help such cases, since Robert Pickton picked up his victims in Vancouver and brought them to his Port Coquitlam farm.
