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Old 04-27-2012, 05:58 PM   #1
Flash Walken
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Thumbs down Toronto Star investigation: Police Who Lie

Quote:
A coast-to-coast Toronto Star investigation found more than 120 police officers have been accused by judges of outright lying, misleading the court or fabricating evidence since 2005. Many of the officers have gone unpunished.

Police who lie: How officers thwart justice with false testimony

There is so little oversight of the problem that in some jurisdictions police forces did not know judges found that their officers misled the court. Internal investigations into four cases — three in Peel, one in York — were started after the Star brought the courtroom misconduct to the departments’ attention.

Compounding the lack of oversight is a lack of accountability to the public.

Big-city forces, including Montreal and Calgary, refused to say whether their officers were disciplined.

At the Toronto Police Service, where at least 34 officers have come under fire from judges for being untruthful in court in recent years, there is little indication Chief Bill Blair considers the judges’ findings a call for change.

The chair of the civilian oversight Toronto Police Services Board, Alok Mukherjee, told the Star he is troubled by this “serious issue” and wants something done to stop the lies from eroding the public’s trust in his police force.

“If we say a police officer takes an oath of office to uphold the law, if we require that they must be of good moral character and integrity …then someone who is found to have lied or falsified their notes, can they be said to be upholding their oath? Can they be said to have demonstrated integrity?” he said. “My simple, non-legal mind says: That’s misconduct.”

The Star sent letters to police forces across the country asking how they responded to the judicial findings questioning their officers’ credibility. The reactions ranged from receptive to unaware to dismissive.

In Edmonton, where judges found at least nine officers have been misleading or not credible, one was found guilty of three counts of insubordination, while two more are awaiting disciplinary hearings. Two others are being investigated. Chief Rod Knecht said the force has a range of disciplinary measures for officers found to have been deceitful, from re-training and fines to termination.

“The credibility of a police officer is sacrosanct. Our entire profession is based on the principle that police officers will act and be held to a higher level of accountability,” Knecht told the Star. “Every instance of deceitful behaviour damages the collective reputation of police everywhere. Once damaged, that reputation is hard to restore.”
Quote:
Frustration with police dishonesty bubbled over in a Niagara Region courtroom last August, when a judge made a controversial ruling in an attempt to get police brass to act.

The case stemmed from one of the largest grow-op busts in Ontario’s history. In May 2008, Niagara officers raided a series of buildings, including a greenhouse and former church. They seized thousands of plants and arrested eight people in what was described as the takedown of a $16-million operation.

The original tip came from a Hamilton detective, who had noticed a suspicious home in the town of Lincoln while visiting family over Christmas.

But the Niagara detective, James Malloy, and other officers tried to hide the source of their information and “made inaccurate and misleading notes” by claiming the information came from an anonymous source, Justice Peter Hambly said in his ruling.

“Malloy lied under oath and stated that he would have continued to lie under oath in court if he had not been caught,” the judge said.

The officers did not follow their obligation to share all the information they found in their investigation to the prosecutor, the judge said. Instead, they censored and redacted the information on their own.

Once aware of the officers’ cover-up, Niagara’s senior officers were indifferent to the misconduct, Hambly said.

“Senior officers have taken no action. The chief of police (Wendy Southall), who now knows what has taken place, has taken no action,” he said. “It seems highly likely that what has happened here will continue to happen unless the court refuses to hear the case.”
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/a...oes-unpunished
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