Another Relevant TC Article

Our fractured forces: Is it time to overhaul B.C.'s police system?
After decades of jurisdictional squabbling, and three deadly tragedies, is it time to overhaul B.C.'s police system?
By Lindsay Kines, Katie Derosa and Jack Knox, Times Colonist September 22, 2010

An in depth article on policing including the problems in the Peter Lee case where his wife bounced among three police departments while trying to get help for spousal abuse. On the night of the murders, the grandmother's 911 call was handled by a maze of dispatchers, while dozens of police officers from Victoria, Saanich and Oak Bay responded to the call.

A Victoria police officer could be heard saying over the radio: "This is ugly. It looks like there isn't anyone taking control at all."

The coroner's inquest recommended the "continued unification of the various police departments" in Greater Victoria.


"It mystifies me," former Ottawa police chief Vince Bevan says of B.C.'s balkanized system. "It's beyond me how they can have these series of smaller departments, and think that they're meeting standards."


Greater Victoria has more than a dozen integrated units, ranging from the 18-officer Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit to a single officer working with exploited youth. Yet there are only two locally developed teams with participation from all capital region departments: the new domestic violence unit, and mental health mobile crisis response team.

"This isn't about cost,"
"This is about the ability to deploy more effectively."

Read the TC article for the full story

Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/fractured+forces+time+overhaul+police+system/3560864/story.html#ixzz10ybcxGp9