Police asked to review MLA's complaint: Commission
sends missing-women claim to Vancouver department for comment
The Vancouver Sun
Mar 2002
Kim Bolan
Vancouver Sun
The police complaints commission has referred a complaint about the
Vancouver police handling of the missing women's case to the department for
a response, deputy commissioner Barb Murphy said Tuesday.
And because of the controversial nature of the department's original
investigation of the case, the matter will probably be turned over to
another police department for further review, Murphy said.
"Nothing has been decided yet," she said in an interview.
"With this level of controversy and the type of issue that is going on
there, ultimately it will probably . . . go to an outside police
agency."
Surrey-Newton MLA Tony Bhullar filed the third-party complaint Friday
against the Vancouver police department, alleging to the commission that the
department did not follow up on information received years ago in the
investigation of the disappearance of dozens of women from Vancouver's
Downtown Eastside.
Bhullar told The Vancouver Sun that he wanted an inquiry that would
look at systemic problems in the department that led to delays and
deficiencies in the original missing women investigation, started by
Vancouver police in 1998.
A year ago, the case was taken over by a joint Vancouver police-RCMP
task force.
In February, Port Coquitlam pig farmer Robert (Willy) Pickton was
charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of two of the missing women
--Sereena Abotsway, 29, and Mona Wilson, 26.
Solicitor-General Rich Coleman, Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen and others
have said that a public inquiry could not take place while the criminal
investigation continues.
But Bhullar said an inquiry would focus on the process, not on any
evidence or specific details related to the current charges.
Murphy said the complaint is being handled, as all are, by first being
passed to the police department for an assessment of the type of complaint
it is -- a service and policy complaint or a complaint against a specific
officer's conduct.
"They have the opportunity to review it and a decision has to be
made on how it is going to be characterized," Murphy said.
"It is a decision that is made by them and can be endorsed and/or
changed by us."
She said there is no time limit for the Vancouver police response, but
she expects it will be prompt.
"We expect that it will be dealt with as quickly as
possible."
Murphy said that, like most third-party complaints, Bhullar's does not
have a lot of detail and must be fleshed out by Vancouver police as the
department involved.
Murphy said any time it is determined that the conduct of the police
chief is part of the probe, "then it would automatically go
outside."
She said that at the early stage of the complaint process, she can
only speak in "very broad strokes."
Murphy said Bhullar's complaint was the first into the entire missing
women's investigation.
But an earlier complaint had been filed involving the Vancouver police
probe into the disappearance of one of the missing women.
On July 28, 1999, Deborah Jardine, whose daughter Angela disappeared
in late 1998, wrote to the police complaints commission.
Jardine alleged the detectives working on Angela's case did not
adequately follow up when her daughter disappeared in November, 1998.
She said they didn't even collect critical information about her
appearance and clothing and declined her offer to send a recent photograph
of her daughter for the first missing women's poster printed in early 1999.
Then when she received the poster, the photo was "outdated and a
poor likeness of Angela," she wrote in her complaint letter.
She said she was not notified of her daughter's disappearance, but
learned of it when she contacted police two months after Angela disappeared.
But the police complaints commission responded that the two detectives
in question had "exemplary police records" and that Jardine's
concerns were the "only complaint received from any of the families of
the missing women."
kbolan@pacpress.southam.ca