Codiac RCMP isn’t alarmed after reporting an increase in the number of complaints made against them by the public.
Last night, Inspector Jamie George told the Codiac Regional Policing Authority they had seven complaints in June, bringing their year to date total to 18.
George says a new system for processing complaints is partly responsible for the spike.
“There were a number that came in through the online system directly to Ottawa, that didn’t get processed in Ottawa, then pushed down to us so we could follow them up,” says George. “And then we got seven or eight right in a row, so that made our numbers jump.”
He says a little over halfway into this year, they are at 18, as compared to 24 for all of 2015.
“Theoretically I suppose we’re ahead of our pace for last year, but certainly nothing that would indicate we have an issue with one particular member, or one particular practice that we use,” says George. “And some of those complaints, many of them are from the same person, I’m not going to make a comment on the veracity of those complaints, but it’s not uncommon to receive many complaints throughout the year from one or two individuals.”
He says they hear a wide variety of complaints, and investigate them all.
“Complaints where people are not happy with the way they were spoken to, it could be someone who said police use excessive force, an irregularity in procedure,” says George. “In some cases it’s about feeling the RCMP did not conduct and adequate investigation into their complaint.”
George says all the complaints are investigated, and, if warranted, disciplinary actions depend on the severity of the violation.
