Chief slams critics, says report clears police

Vancouver police Chief Jamie Graham says a lengthy RCMP investigation has cleared his department of nearly 60 allegations of misconduct in the city's Downtown Eastside.

• FROM JUNE 9, 2003: Dozens of complaints filed against police

Those charges were made by the Pivot Legal Society in a report to the Police Complaints Commission nearly two years ago.

The Pivot report accused police of using excessive force and conducting illegal searches in the city's poorest neighbourhood.

• LINK: Pivot report: To Serve and Protect

The complaints commissioner asked the RCMP to investigate the Pivot charges. And now 18 months and $1 million later, there is a final report.

"Both the RCMP and Vancouver police investigators concluded that there was not a single case of criminal activity by a Vancouver police officer. Not one," says the police chief.

However, there are also nine cases involving assault and abuse of authority in which RCMP investigators conclude that allegations were substantiated – while Vancouver police, who have the final say, disagree.

"There was no kidnapping, no torture, no assault by any of my officers," says an angry Graham.

• LINK: Transcript of Chief Jamie Graham's statement

Graham says his department is one of the most transparent police forces in the country. And he says Pivot's only motivation in producing the report was to attack his department.

John Conroy

"If we truly care about all the men and women whose names appear on these documents then we can't allow activist groups to hijack, for their own purpose, the system that's designed to protect the people they say they represent."

• LINK: Spreadsheet report of investigation's findings (pdf)

Pivot spokesperson John Conroy says he can't comment on the investigation until he reads the full RCMP report. And he says Graham's attack on his group is biased and unfair.

Conroy also says Pivot received progress reports from the RCMP during the investigation.

"What you had was the RCMP attempting to investigate these complaints, and not receiving substantial co-operation from the Vancouver Police Department," he says.