RCMP officer Monty Robinson

Some stories are sad, and some are crazy. This one is both. One of the four RCMP officers involved in the death of Robert Dziekanski in 2007 has now been arrested over a hit-and-run death two weekends ago, allegedly a drunk-driving collision. Orion Hutchinson, 21, was killed in a crash between his motorcycle and a Jeep in Tsawwassen, B.C., and Cpl. Benjamin Monty Robinson was reportedly behind the wheel of the Jeep. A clip from the Vancouver Sun:

The driver of the Jeep, an off-duty RCMP member, was transported to Delta police headquarters where, Delta police said, he failed a breathalyser test. [ … ] The RCMP has also confirmed the officer charged is one of the four who was involved in the Tasering of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver airport on Oct. 14, 2007. Dziekanski died shortly after being Tasered. Robinson, who was working for the RCMP’s Vancouver 2010 integrated security unit, has been suspended with pay.

In this case, the RCMP refuses to actually identify whether Robinson is the officer in question, saying that he — unlike any civilian suspect in the same circumstances — must remain anonymous before he’s been formally charged in court in January. This kind of arrogance and opacity, closing the ranks and shutting out the public, is what has gotten the RCMP into trouble time and again. Obviously Robinson deserves and will receive due process of law and is innocent until proven guilty. But the juxtaposition of Robert Dziekanski’s horrifying treatment by the RCMP (Taser first, ask questions later) and the kid-glove treatment that officer Robinson appears to be getting (we won’t even tell you the suspect’s name because you’ll  jump to conclusions) is so glaring that it induces a kind of moral vertigo.

Robert Dziekanski could have used some of the RCMP’s oh-so-decorous adherence to due process and civility in October 2007.

Robert Dziekanski being restrained by RCMP officers in Vancouver International Airport, October 14, 2007, in amateur video of the incident.

The Robert Dziekanski case—in which the unfortunate victim, a non-English speaker who died at the Vancouver airport in 2007 after being Tasered by RCMP officers 24 seconds after they arrived—continues to play out at the Braidwood Inquiry. On Tuesday, RCMP superintendent Wayne Rideout told the inquiry that having RCMP officers investigate their own colleagues presents an “unwinnable” image problem, reports Ian Bailey in the Globe and Mail:

The optics of police investigating themselves in such cases as the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski presents an “unwinnable” image problem, the officer in charge of the investigation into the Dziekanski case says.

RCMP Superintendent Wayne Rideout yesterday told the Braidwood inquiry into Mr. Dziekanski’s death in October, 2007, that police conduct “very competent and thorough” investigations through the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team he formerly led.

First of all, we already know that the RCMP is lousy at investigating wrongdoing by its own members: the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP already nixed that idea in August, with a report that found deep and troubling problems with the RCMP’s internal investigation procedures. Second, having law enforcement officials investigate their own colleagues in cases where civilians or suspects have died is not simply a problem of “optics” or “image.” The reason it appears rotten is because it is. The potential for miscarriages of justice, sloppy or willfully incomplete investigations, and full-bore coverups is too great when conflicts of interest like this are allowed to continue.

Robert Dziekanski wasn’t a victim of bad public relations; he was a victim of bad police work. Self-evaluation in this case (and others) isn’t an option.

RCMP officers marching on Remembrance Day in Vancouver. Creative Commons photo by Flickr user "SqueakyMarmot"

The Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP released its report this week on “Police Investigating Police,”and the news was not good. The commission studied 28 cases where suspects in RCMP custody suffered serious bodily injury or death, and how the police force investigated those cases. A quarter of the time, colleagues were investigating each other; in none of the cases was an outside police force brought in to investigate RCMP personnel. And surprise, surprise: 80 percent of the time, no charges were ever laid against RCMP personnel.

RCMP commissioner William Elliott dismissed many of the commission’s findings yesterday, saying things are “not as bleak” as the CPC report makes it seem.

Mr. Elliott said it is simply impossible for his officers to stay away from an investigation in every situation. He said that in a perfect world, RCMP officers would never investigate their colleagues, but he argued it is impractical.

The RCMP Commissioner said that in a case involving a police shooting in one of Canada’s remote communities, for example, there are no other police forces in place to handle the investigation.

I’m sure there are all kinds of practical hurdles in place, but the simple fact is that investigating police misconduct is too important to dismiss as some sort of frill. It doesn’t take a “perfect world” to handle glaring conflicts of interest like these. The RCMP has clearly been in a compromised position many times, in serious cases where people died, and those victims deserve a proper investigation by independent authorities. The CPC stressed in its report that it did not find any cases where the RCMP self-investigation actually resulted in injustice being done. But conflict of interests like these are unacceptable regardless, and the RCMP should radically change the way it handles investigations of its own officers.