Review of the RCMP's Public Complaint Records

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Follow-Up of RCMP Response to Review of the Record Report Recommendations

The Commission's Review of the RCMP's Public Complaints Records-2007, made six (6) recommendations for immediate implementation. Unfortunately, the RCMP did not officially respond to the 2007 report, nor did it respond to the recommendations. The Commission is concerned about this lack of response, given that there are concerns with the RCMP public complaint process that need to be rectified.

Some RCMP divisions, however, did respond directly to the Commission as well as to their contracting province. Their responses provided a greater understanding of what steps these divisions were going to take to effectively address the areas identified as needing improvement; allowed them to highlight changes they had made; underscored the positive work they had been engaged in with various stakeholders; as well as raised questions about some of the Commissions findings. Many of the suggestions provided by these divisions with respect to the Review of the RCMP's Public Complaints Records-2007 have been incorporated into this report. It is hoped in the future that other divisions, as well as theProfessional Standards and External Review Directorate at RCMP Headquarters, will provide feedback to the Commission.

Although there was no official response from the RCMP, the Commission is in a position to detail what general steps have been taken by the Force in relation to the RCMP public complaint process and further expand on our concerns. It should be stressed that the RCMP and the Commission have recently engaged in dialogue to address many of these issues. These recommendations were:

1. That the Professional Standards and External Review Directorate at RCMP Headquarters organize a Force-wide meeting of divisional Professional Standards units and the Commission in order to discuss best practices and ways of improving efficiency and effectiveness in the public complaint process.

The Commission has been advised that the Professional Standards and External Review Directorate at RCMP Headquarters was planning such a meeting scheduled for the fall of 2009. Some divisions and regions already hold such meetings on a regular basis and have invited the Commission to participate. For instance, a presentation by the Commission on key issues was made to the "E" Division Professional Standards and External Review Directorate in January 2009. This has served to further solidify the working relationship between the RCMP and the Commission and to assist in standardizing the public complaint process which assists both organizations in improving service to Canadians.

2. That the Professional Standards and External Review Directorate at RCMP Headquarters send out a directive clearly articulating:

1. when it is appropriate to informally resolve improper use of force complaints and when it is not;
2. how public complaints defined under Part VII of the RCMP Act are to be processed when the complainant raises statutory offence allegations; and
3. when it is appropriate to terminate a public complaint under the RCMP Act and what information must be included in a Notice of Direction.

Unfortunately, neither this recommendation nor its subcomponents has been met. Given this lack of response and the need for clarification, the Commission compiled, from RCMP documents, criteria that should be met while completing complaint dispositions. As well, the Commission has also authored a position paper on the appropriate application of the termination provisions in the RCMP Act and what information must be included in the Notice of Direction.¹³ Both of the criteria and the termination position paper are available on the Commission's website.

3. That the RCMP implement a more efficient means of tracking public complaints and that divisions and detachments provide the Commission with a copy of all of the outstanding complaint dispositions.

The recommendation has not fully been met. The divisions and detachments throughout the Force have been providing the Commission with dispositions and have worked diligently in addressing the outstanding dispositions that need to be provided to the Commission. This cooperation is commendable and the evidence of this hard work is further detailed in the Outstanding Disposition List section of the report.

Notwithstanding this, the Professional Standards and External Review Directorate at RCMP Headquarters has not implemented an efficient means of tracking public complaints. In an attempt to address this, in January 2009, the Commission provided the RCMP with a blank copy of the Review of the Record database and offered technical assistance with respect to its use. This was done in an effort to assist the RCMP in upgrading its case tracking system and to facilitate a more efficient (and standardized) approach to processing the thousands of complaints that are submitted each year. At the time of writing this report the Professional Standards and External Review Directorate had not implemented the database and indicated to the Commission that despite it being provided to the Force nine months prior, it was still under "assessment" from a Privacy Act standpoint.

The lack of a comprehensive database is problematic for a number of reasons, as record-keeping associated with the Force-wide public complaints system is inconsistent, ineffective and disorganized. There is no centralized tracking mechanism, complaints from across the entire Force are tracked on an Excel spreadsheet, sometimes without file numbers or the full names of the complainants, and there is limited search capability. This is especially challenging when there are complainants who submit multiple complaints or when there are unrelated complainants who have the same last name.

To further complicate matters, the RCMP spreadsheet does not capture when a complaint was lodged, only when the Professional Standards and External Review Directorate was notified of the complaint, which makes it difficult to properly track the life of a complaint or to properly assess how long a complaint has been outstanding. The Commission does capture this information and provides the Professional Standards and External Review Directorate at RCMP Headquarters with an outstanding disposition list approximately every three months for distribution to the divisions.

Unfortunately, the RCMP list is not adequately maintained or regularly updated and attempts by the Commission to reconcile our lists with those of the Force resulted in our organization being provided with hundreds of duplicate complaint records; the identification of open complaints that had, in reality, been closed; the identification of complaints that had been closed but were, in actual fact, still under investigation; and the identification of complaints that were not known to the Professional Standards and External Review Directorate. Simply put, the Professional Standards and External Review Directorate is unable, with certainty, to identify when complaints were lodged, how many have been lodged, where they were lodged, the members involved, what the nature of the complaints are, and if an investigation or appropriate disposition has been completed on a national level.

While the record keeping of public complaints may be considered an internal administrative matter within the RCMP, the present problems associated with the tracking and documenting of the public complaint system is such that it negatively impacts the functioning and effectiveness of RCMP oversight.

The Commission, therefore, recommends that the RCMP implement a proper public complaint database immediately to ensure efficiency in the system. Since the Professional Standards and External Review Directorate has centralized aspects of the public complaint system by requesting divisions to provide it with copies of complaint forms and dispositions (before they are provided to the Commission) it is essential that it has the technical infrastructure and resource capacity in place to facilitate this.

4. That the RCMP ensure that those tasked with capturing public complaints and writing complaint dispositions be appropriately trained and that manuals related to the public complaint process be immediately updated to ensure a standardized national approach.

The Commission has been aware for some time of the intention of the Professional Standards and External Review Directorate to update the manuals and guidelines associated with public complaints and internal investigations. To date, this has not been completed. Guidance and standardization at the national level is needed and therefore, the Commission reiterates its recommendation that this training be completed in a more timely fashion.

5. That the RCMP commit to improving its service standards by implementing ways to reduce wait times and increase processing times for complaint dispositions.

This recommendation has not yet been met. However, the Commission notes, with encouragement, that the findings of the 2008 Review of the Record Report indicate a considerable improvement in timelines over those indentified in the Report for 2007. This reflects the hard work and commitment of the divisions in strengthening the public complaint process.

6. That the RCMP ensure that all of the complaint dispositions be provided to the Commission concurrent to being provided to the member and the complainant.

This recommendation has not been met, as the Professional Standards and External Review Directorate at RCMP Headquarters has taken steps to centralize the process and insists that all complaint dispositions be provided to it before they are provided to the Commission. While the rationale behind this decision is understandable, given the current concerns with record keeping the Commission is concerned that this aspect of the centralization will negatively impact service to Canadians and the strict service standards which the Commission has imposed upon itself. To that end, the Commission will review the impact of this centralization on the timeliness of Professional Standards and External Review Directorate service delivery and if the negative impact persists, then will recommend that the decision to centralize be reversed.

Given the Commission's concerns with respect to record keeping and data collection of Professional Standards and External Review Directorate at RCMP Headquarters, the Commission is of the opinion that it cannot rely on any statistics, or accountability reports that are released by this Directorate until the latter corrects the deficiencies identified in its record keeping practices. The Commission does note that this Directorate has appointed a new manager of the Public Complaint Unit. This additional resource will hopefully assist with the workload demands on this section.

Recommendations

Recognizing the importance of RCMP-wide consistency and based on the findings of the analyses within the Review of the Record Project, the Commission recommends to the Commissioner of the RCMP the following:

1. That the RCMP immediately implement the recommendations made by the Commission in its Review of the RCMP's Public Complaints Records-2007 report.
2. That the Professional Standards and External Review Directorate at RCMP Headquarters immediately implement a proper database to track public complaints and related processes so that this Directorate will be able, at a minimum, to identify when complaints were lodged, how many have been lodged, where they were lodged, the members involved, what the nature of the complaints are and if an investigation or appropriate disposition has been completed on a national level.
3. That the RCMP ensure that those tasked with capturing public complaints and writing complaint dispositions receive complete and ongoing training and that manuals related to the public complaint process be immediately updated to ensure a standardized national approach.
4. That the RCMP commit to improving its service standards by implementing ways to reduce wait times and reduce processing times for complaint dispositions.
5. That the Professional Standards and External Review Directorate at RCMP Headquarters immediately issue a directive to RCMP members clearly articulating:
   1. What constitutes "serious allegations" and when it is appropriate to informally resolve improper use of force complaints and when it is not;
   2. how public complaints defined under Part VII of the RCMP Act are to be processed when the complainant raises statutory offence allegations; and
   3. when it is appropriate to terminate a public complaint under the RCMP Act and what information must be included in a Notice of Direction.
6. That the RCMP amend its policies (as required) regarding the withdrawal of complaints to ensure that its policies clearly articulate when it is appropriate to accept a purported withdrawal of a complaint making "serious allegations"; and that the reasons for the withdrawal are clearly documented on the withdrawal forms.
7. That the Commissioner of the RCMP, to enhance consistency and adherence to policy, revise his delegated authority with respect to the issuance of Notices of Direction for terminations from the unit level to, at least, the level of officer (or non-commissioned officer) in charge of the Divisional Professional Standards units.
8. That the RCMP implement a national program whereby multiple complaints will be utilized as an "early warning" of potential conduct-related concerns with individual RCMP members.
9. That the RCMP commit to initiate a detailed examination into the entire RCMP public complaint process in the Territories. The Commission is amenable to working jointly with the RCMP with respect to this recommendation.

13 Excerpts of which have been reproduced in this report for the purposes of situating the statistics associated with terminating complaints.

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