Lowe integrity:
Police complaint commissioner
Stan T. Lowe and his deputy,
Rollie Woods, are corrupt

Their lies, cover-ups, breach of public trust
and support for gratuitous police violence
will bring them millions of dollars

Dec. 9, 2011

 

What’s the joke? Stan T. Lowe gets rich by covering up
for police violence — and it’s really easy work
because no one’s watching him.

 

There’s money in it for them when a big, burly cop shoves a thin, frail, handicapped woman to the ground. Or when four heavily armed cops repeatedly Taser a distraught immigrant, handcuff him face-down on the floor and watch him die — even refusing to remove the handcuffs for emergency medical aid.

Police complaint commissioner Stan T. Lowe and his deputy, Rollie Woods, are corrupt, plain and simple. Over the course of their careers and retirement they’ll pull in millions of dollars in return for their dishonest work. That work entails covering up for police misconduct, including criminal actions. They get away with it because they answer to no one — absolutely no one at all.

I’ve twice called for an independent investigation into these characters and their work. It hasn’t happened, it won’t happen and the mainstream media don’t much care. In lieu of a badly needed formal investigation, or at least some media scrutiny, I’m providing this account of Lowe’s and Woods’ corruption. Some of this comes from personal experience, some of it from news reports. A bit of it’s circumstantial and even speculative. But the most important information is well substantiated. That info concerns two previous police complaint commissioners who established the OPCC pattern of dishonesty, Lowe’s shameful decision in the Robert Dziekanski case, Woods’ dishonesty as a Vancouver police officer and the OPCC cover-up of police brutality against a handicapped woman. The facts behind that last incident alone are solid enough to show corruption at the OPCC. Anyone who thinks otherwise can sue me.

Money motivated Stan Lowe’s decision to exonerate
the four Mounties involved in Robert Dziekanski’s death

It was a unanimous decision by the Criminal Justice Branch executive management, of which Lowe was a member. Lowe was also the spokesperson, stating emphatically that the five Taser shocks and other brutal treatment inflicted on Dziekanski were “reasonable and necessary.” Had Lowe stood up to his CJB colleagues, his career would have suffered. He might not have lost his job, but his future advancement would likely have stalled.

Moreover Lowe knew that if he challenged the police status quo he’d be rejected for the OPCC appointment, for which he had applied. The two past office-holders, former police complaint commissioners Don Morrison and Dirk Ryneveld, both demonstrated that the job only goes to people of low integrity.

That was further incentive for Lowe to make his legally false, morally inexcusable and offensively stupid excuses for RCMP officers Bill Bentley, Gerry Rundell, Kwesi Millington and Benjamin Montgomery Monty Robinson, the Dziekanski death squad.

Lowe made big money out of that. His lucrative OPCC appointment which will, over his lifetime, bring him millions of dollars in pay, perks and pension, was confirmed the week after he announced the Dziekanski decision.

Stan Lowe hired a corrupt cop, Rollie Woods

Lowe continued to show his lack of ethics by hiring Rollie Woods on his retirement from the Vancouver Police Department. Woods had previously headed the VPD Professional Standards department. While there, Woods proved to be a liar who made up the Criminal Code as he went along. He and his staff conducted dishonest investigations that disregarded evidence in favour of complainants, knowingly accepted false or obviously unreliable evidence against complainants, conducted heavy-handed interrogations to try to intimidate complainants into changing their statements, ignored important aspects of complaints, used vague, highly subjective or otherwise unsupportable judgements to cast doubt on complainants and support police, and came to decisions before even interviewing complainants.

The purpose of Woods’ dishonest work was to cover up for police misconduct, including criminal actions.

There was money in it for Woods. While running the oddly named Professional Standards section, he was feathering his bed with the OPCC.

Woods developed a very chummy relationship with people at the agency, especially then-police complaint commissioner Dirk Ryneveld, a corrupt public official himself, and his equally corrupt deputy, Bruce M. Brown.

Despite Woods’ obvious dishonesty, the OPCC’s 2005 annual report quotes Ryneveld as follows: “I am satisfied that Inspector Rollie Woods who now heads up that section is committed to ensuring that investigations are thoroughly conducted, that officers comply with their duties under the Police Act and that our office is properly kept apprised of file developments.”

Woods knew that Ryneveld and Brown would automatically approve anything Woods did to cover up for the police.

Woods actually bragged to the Vancouver Courier’s cop-friendly reporter Mike Howell that the OPCC had never called for a public hearing into any of the cop-on-cop investigations conducted under his watch. That’s cause for alarm, not self-congratulation. It further shows the chummy relationship between three corrupt people — Woods, Ryneveld and Brown.

Ryneveld and Brown knew that Woods had exactly the right kind of integrity — none — to work at the OPCC.

So prior to leaving the VPD, Woods secured a cushy double-dipping sinecure that involved lots of pay for little work. (Probably as a favour to Woods, Howell pointedly stated that Woods joined the OPCC three months after leaving the VPD. But the OPCC job would have been set up well in advance.)

Ryneveld and Brown might have set the stage for hiring Woods. But it was Lowe who finally made the decision. By that time Ryneveld was gone and Brown was still second in command. Lowe was the new OPCC head.

Before hiring him, Stan Lowe knew
that Rollie Woods was a liar and a corrupt cop

I met Lowe in September 2009. We spoke briefly and he was gracious towards me despite the fact that I had been publicly criticizing his Dziekanski decision and the fact that he had been appointed OPCC chief. He indicated that he was familiar with my own police complaint (which led to this campaign) and he said a number of times, “My office treated you very badly.” If he was familiar with my case he was familiar with Woods’ dishonest work. Yet Lowe hired him anyway.

(At the time I thought Ryneveld was the one who had hired Woods. I also held a faint hope that Lowe would work honourably despite his Dziekanski decision. I was wrong about who hired Woods and, as demonstrated by Lowe’s response to the VPD assault on a handicapped woman, about Lowe’s capacity for honour.)

Stan Lowe promoted a corrupt ex-cop, Rollie Woods,
to deputy police complaint commissioner

It’s bad enough that Lowe hired this liar, but when the equally dishonest Brown retired (to receive two pensions, one from the OPCC, the other from the RCMP), Lowe promoted Woods to deputy police complaint commissioner. Lowe deliberately promoted a proven liar and a corrupt ex-cop who’s taken part in many police cover-ups. He did so to demonstrate that he supports the status quo, even though that meant ensuring a corrupt police culture continues at the OPCC.

Lowe wanted to maintain that dishonest police culture because he profits from it, as did Morrison, Ryneveld and Brown. If Lowe had acted on principle he would have angered the police status quo. That could jeopardize millions of dollars in pay, perks and pension. Furthermore his support for the status quo ensures that, should he leave the OPCC before retirement, he qualifies for other lucrative government contracts, commissions and appointments.

Rollie Woods profited from his dishonesty

Woods’ lies and cover-ups while a Vancouver police officer paved the way for a very lucrative retirement sinecure. In addition to his fat cop pension, Woods gets a fat OPCC salary and then a second fat pension when he retires for the second time. All that for little work — except for some cases that get advance publicity or the advance support of an influential group, OPCC staff don’t actually review police investigations. They simply skim the cops’ report and then write an almost unbelievably sloppy decision supporting the police.

Stan Lowe took part in the Vancouver police cover-up
of a VPD officer’s gratuitous assault on a handicapped woman.
Lowe did it for money

Vancouver police constable Taylor Robinson shoved a disabled woman named Sandy Davidsen to the ground for no reason. He did that on June 9, 2010. But the media didn’t find out until July 22, over six weeks later. On that day the VPD and OPCC acknowledged the assault for the first time, saying they both learned about it soon after it happened. (Interestingly, after issuing its statement the OPCC refused to answer calls from at least one reporter, Kim Bolan of the Vancouver Sun.) A few days later Robinson was transferred out of the low-income neighbourhood and an outside police force was asked to investigate.

Again — until the assault was publicized, Robinson continued walking a beat in a neighbourhood where he’d likely encounter his victim again. Until the assault was publicized, it wasn’t publicly acknowledged and no outside police force was called to investigate, as is supposed to be the case with serious assaults.

This certainly counts as a serious assault. A big, burly bastard shoves a thin, frail handicapped woman to the ground. Why? Because she didn’t get out of the way fast enough for three big, burly tough-acting cops walking abreast to take up most of the sidewalk.

Vancouver police covered this up. Stan Lowe helped them.

At the very least, Lowe knows about the cover-up. But he refuses to do anything about it. Therefore he implicitly condones the cover-up and is, in effect, covering up the cover-up.

More likely, he took part in the police cover-up himself. Here’s one scenario. Lowe and the OPCC learned about the assault soon after it happened but kept it quiet to aid the Vancouver police cover-up.

Here’s another scenario. Lowe and the OPCC did not learn about the assault until July 22. But they claimed they were informed promptly to cover up for Vancouver cops who failed to inform them, which is both a VPD policy (officially, anyway) and a Police Act requirement.

Another possibility is that the first scenario took place but other OPCC staff kept Lowe in the dark. As OPCC chief, however, Lowe has to take responsibility. Moreover, there’s no sign that anyone at the OPCC was disciplined. Brown has since retired, free of his much-deserved public disgrace and presumably on a fat OPCC pension in addition to his fat RCMP pension. Woods has been promoted, by Lowe no less.

There’s a slim chance that Lowe didn’t know before July 22, but no chance he didn’t know after that. Honesty, integrity and public trust required him to act.

He didn’t.

In refusing to act, Lowe profited. He bolstered his position in a job that calls for a person of low integrity to support a corrupt status quo. In return he helped maintain a position that will bring him millions of dollars in pay, perks and pension.

And that’s what Lowe gets. Millions of dollars in pay, perks and pension.

Brown, while with the OPCC, got an easy job and a generous salary in addition to his generous cop pension. He now gets a second generous OPCC pension.

Ryneveld made excellent money for very little work at the OPCC and is now rewarded with lucrative government legal work. He rakes in additional money as legal counsel for Saanich police.

Woods now has an easy job and generous salary in addition to his generous cop pension, and will eventually get two great big pensions.

The pattern of dishonesty has been clear under all three police complaint commissioners — Morrison, Ryneveld and Lowe — and at least some of their staff, like Brown and Woods. Dishonesty is obviously a job requirement, but the job is very rewarding. These corrupt public officials are getting big money. They were hired specifically for their lack of integrity and they’ve maintained that lack of integrity ever since.

That’s easy to do. They answer to no one — not the provincial Ombudsperson nor anyone else. They answer to absolutely no one at all.

Oh yes — they’ll hold investigative authority over Richard Rosenthal’s new Independent Investigations Office.

Read more about the Stan Lowe/Bruce Brown/Rollie Woods/OPCC cover-up
of VPD constable Taylor Robinson’s assault on a disabled woman
Update: Another Stan T. Lowe/Rollie Woods cover-up
comes to light, this one involving New Westminster cop
Sukhwinder “Vinnie” Singh Dosanjh
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Go to Stan Lowe and the OPCC page