Few individuals in Canadian society are granted the powers and privileges of
police officers.
The law allows them to infringe upon our personal freedoms in the course of
their duties; they have the right to carry deadly weapons on the job, and,
under rare and regrettable circumstances, they are sanctioned to take a
human life.
However, because of these exceptional powers and privileges, men and women in
law enforcement also must expect a greater level of scrutiny.
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is a civilian agency that investigates incidents of serious injury or death involving police. Recently, it investigated the shooting death of a Midland man by an officer of that town’s police department.
The review resulted in the officer being cleared of any wrongdoing regarding the shooting.
Closer to home, last summer the agency cleared a Barrie police officer in regards to a fatal collision that claimed the life of a 43-year-old Barrie man last May; the officer was in pursuit of the vehicle that struck and killed the man.
While such findings are no doubt relieving to the officers and police departments involved, they are also reassuring to members of the public, who can rest easy that police officers acted professionally and within the boundaries of the law.
Nonetheless, there are those who will always question why deadly force was
necessary, or why a chase was required. The presence of the SIU provides a timely and measured response to such questions.
Accountability requires that tough question be asked of police when circumstances warrant them. In the case of the Midland shooting and the Barrie pursuit, the SIU asked the appropriate questions and was satisfied by the responses.
That’s how our system of police accountability is designed to work.
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