A Toronto Star investigation: Above the Law

A Toronto Star investigation: Above the Law [via TNT] [LINK]

A Toronto police officer inexplicably floors his gas pedal, speeds into an illegal right turn and runs down a grandmother, severing her brain stem and killing her instantly.

An OPP constable wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a baton and pepper spray shoots and kills an intellectually challenged 59-year-old man holding a small pocket knife.

During a traffic stop near Canada's Wonderland, York Region officers rough up a small, 50-year-old accountant, breaking his arm and leaving him roadside.

A Peel Region police officer sucker-punches a handcuffed prisoner and breaks his jaw in two places.

Two teens chatting on the grass in a public park are run over by a Durham Region squad car, suffering extensive injuries.

All of these officers were quickly cleared by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) — the provincial agency responsible for investigating serious injuries and deaths resulting from interactions between police and the public. All still work as police officers. ... [LINK]

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The solution to the inherent problem of Police investigating Police is simple.

• Civilian oversight.
• All records as open as possible as soon as possible.
• Pay the investigation staff good salaries (higher than those they investigate).
• Pay serious-money performance bonuses when they make a good clean catch of dirty misdeeds.
• If they or anyone involved minimizes police misdeeds, fired and 30-days in jail. (*)
• If they or anyone involved fails to correctly report any police misdeed, fired and 90-days in jail. (*)
• If they or anyone participates in any cover-up or whitewashing of police misdeeds, fired and one-year in prison. (*)
• Just following orders (or approved policies) would not be acceptable defense; everyone must know and respect fundamental laws and fundamental rights.

* We have to add a protective layer of double-or-nothing to the process.