Former New West top cop asks why police-involved shooting investigation took years

NEW WESTMINSTER (NEWS 1130) – Why did it take almost four years for a former New Westminster police officer to find out whether he’d be charged in a non-fatal shooting?

That’s the question the city’s former police chief has, days after the officer was finally cleared of wrongdoing.

“For three and a half years, I know this [officer] has basically every day checked his phone, awaiting a result,” says Dave Jones, the former New West top cop who is now the Chief Officer at Transit Police.

“We’re held accountable to ensure that people we arrest are proceeded with in a timely matter, well, I think just to be fair that same principle should apply in situations such as this.”

The January 2016 shooting saw the officer fire several shots outside the Walmart in Queensborough while trying to arrest an armed suspected shoplifter. The suspect was injured but recovered. As in all police-related incidents of death or serious harm, B.C.’s police watchdog, known as the Independent Investigations Office (IIO), was called to probe the incident.

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Last week, the BC Prosecution Service announced it did not approve charges against the officer, following the IIO’s investigation.

Jones says the suspect’s criminal case concluded a year after the incident, in 2017. The officer involved retired a year ago with the investigation into his actions still hanging over him. He believes three and a half years for a conclusion is too long and too stressful for everyone involved, especially in a case that did not appear complex and where there was no dispute over what the officer did.

“We respect the role of independence and independent investigations, in fact, we asked for it. We firmly believe it’s necessary and it’s the right thing to do for public confidence,” he tells NEWS 1130. “It’s not a criticism of [Crown Counsel’s] role or even the decisions they make, whether to charge or not charge. The issue here … is the timeliness.”

Both the BC Prosecution Service and the IIO say they try to conclude cases in a timely matter. The IIO says it completed its investigation into the 2016 incident in 1one and a half years and referred the matter to the BC Prosecution Service for charge consideration in August 2017.

“Every case is different. There are a number of factors that determine how long the process takes in complex cases involving allegations of police misconduct,” says an emailed statement from the B.C. Prosecution Service, when asked why it took as long as it did to determine whether to approve charges.

“In this particular case the seriousness of the charges, the complexity of the investigation and the resulting evidence, the volume of evidence gathered, and further investigation undertaken by the enforcement agency subsequent to the receipt of the initial report added to the time it took to complete the charge assessment.”

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Meantime, the IIO says one and a half years for an investigation used to be normal and is comparable to other jurisdictions in Canada, nonetheless it has made changes in recent years.

“In those days, that was about normal for the IIO but we have certainly improved our timeframes very significantly since then,” says Ron MacDonald, the Chief Civilian Director of the IIO as of October 2017. “We would expect today that our investigation would take quite a bit shorter than it did then.”

MacDonald says new measures in recent years have contributed to investigations being completed faster. That includes additional resources, which allowed for the hiring of more officers, improved processes within the office, and implemented training programs for oversight investigators.

“This fiscal year we’ve had about 70 per cent more files than we had in the previous two fiscal years. In spite of that, we only have three files where we’re still doing investigative work that pre-date 2019,” says Macdonald.

He hopes this case, involving the New Westminster officer, is the last to take as long as it did.

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