Quebec police are refusing to answer questions from the oversight body investigating civilian deaths and serious injuries during police interventions. This is after
[Police] unions also challenged the obligation for officers to meet with … investigators. They argued that those rules infringed on their members’ constitutional rights to stay silent and not incriminate themselves.
It’s part of a national trend:
in British Columbia, police officers rarely co-operate with the Independent Investigations Office …, while they often only partly co-operate with independent oversight bodies in other provinces.
Not cooperating with oversight investigators should be a fireable offence. Just straight up your job has a higher standard of conduct. If you want your right to not talk that’s fine but you can do that as a civilian not a police officer.
It’s long past time to force officers to be held accountable.
100% this. The role of police is too important to let thugs hide behind “I don wan be incwiminated”.
While that’s true most people are unaware of the places actual role. In the United States at least in the police are not there to protect or serve you. They are there to protect the property of the wealthy. And not much else. They can and will kill you with impunity if afforded the chance. We need to completely reform the police. Because the problems with them stem far far deeper than their simple gang behavior. And that is a sad truth. The police are off the little more than a state or municipality in sanctioned gang.
While you are referencing American police behavior in a forum about Canada, I don’t think our police are much better. We could definitely take a page from some other countries about what responsibilities and obligations police have, or ought to have.
They should be happy to cooperate, since they have nothing to hide, right?
Exactly. Oversight is part of the job. Don’t want to do the job? Fine, the door’s wide open.