Public Complaints Against RCMP Up 35%; Taser Use High On List

June 12, 2009 12:42 p.m. EST

Ottawa, Ontario (AHN) - Complaints against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police grew by 35 percent the past year to 1,692 from 1,258 the previous year, according to the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP.

The commission, which released its annual report Thursday, listed five areas that the RCMP must immediately address.

First is for the Mounties to properly inform complainants of their right to request a review from the Commission of the disposition of their complaints. Second is for the RCMP to stop resolving informally accusations of serious misconduct. Third is lack of support for allegations made versus RCMP members.

The fourth area requiring immediate RCMP attention is its misclassification of a complainant withdrawing his case as an informal resolution. Fifth is the lack of information about the RCMP public complaint process in Nunavut, Yukon and the Northwest Territories.

High on the list of RCMP complaints that the commission is investigating is the misuse of Tasers by the Mounties. Then Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day ordered the commission in November 2007 to review the Mounties' protocol on use of the electronic stun gun. In June 2008 the commission issued its final report recommending 12 measures that asked RCMP to limit their use of Taser, clarify to members and the public when is it permissible to use the stun gun and for the RCMP to coordinate and strengthen efforts on reporting, data collection and analysis of Taser use.

Following the public uproar over the use of Tasers which sometimes resulted to death of its victims like Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, the commission observed a drop by almost 50 percent in use of Tasers.

While there has been media attention over the use of Tasers, what actually topped the list of complaints against Mounties was attitude, which accounted for 20.6 percent. "This category of complaint can include dismissive, rude, non-responsive, or biased behavior on the part of the member as well as behavior that is seen to be unfair or lacking empathy," the report said.

The report, made public by Commission chair Paul Kennedy, recommended to the Minister of Public Safety six measures to improve the RCMP's overall complaint systems. The recommendations include the establishment of best practices, the implementation of efficient mean of tracking public complaints on a national level and to have standardized training for RCMP members involved in handling public complaints and writing dispositions.