B.C.’s Office of the Police
Complaint Commissioner
abuses the Police Act

The OPCC refuses to order an investigation into
the Vancouver police Taylor Robinson cover-up
—in which the OPCC colluded

 

There seems to be a job requirement that employees of B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner be dishonest. OPCC investigative analyst Andrea Spindler proved herself a liar when she rejected my complaint against the Vancouver Police Professional Standards officers who covered up VPD constable Taylor Robinson’s gratuitous assault on a disabled woman named Sandy Davidsen. Spindler claims the conduct of those officers will be taken up in the Robinson public hearing and therefore “an investigation into the same issues would be redundant and contrary to the public interest at this time.”

She’s lying. The Robinson public hearing was called into Robinson, period. The VPD cover-up of Robinson’s actions can play, at best, only a peripheral role. I explained that in detail to Spindler, who should know better anyway. But what can you expect from OPCC staff? They took part in the Vancouver police cover-up themselves.

Spindler’s lie continues a desperate line of deceit begun by deputy police complaint commissioner Rollie Woods, after the Georgia Straight publicized my complaint about his boss, police complaint commissioner Stan T. Lowe, to the Law Society of B.C.

Besides her outright lie, Spindler’s February 27, 2014 letter to me is rife with obfuscation, a routine OPCC tactic. She also misleadingly states: “We deemed Ms. Davidsen’s complaint to be admissible on June 29, 2010, and issued a notice directing the Vancouver Police Department to investigate this complaint pursuant to Division 3 of the Police Act.”

If not read carefully, that statement seems to mean the OPCC ordered an investigation into Robinson on June 29, 2010. In fact no investigation was ordered until after the media publicized the assault on July 22, 2010, more than three weeks after the OPCC found out and more than six weeks after VPD Professional Standards found out. No investigation has ever been ordered into the VPD Professional Standards officers who covered up the assault.

As Spindler’s response shows, the OPCC remains dead set against an investigation into those cops. That’s not surprising because the OPCC colluded in their cover-up.

Apart from continuing the cover-up with continuing lies, Spindler shows how OPCC staff abuse B.C.’s Police Act for their own ambitions. They use dishonest reasons not only to dismiss complaints after a biased police investigation, but also to reject complaints at the outset.

They can do this because they work almost entirely in secret and answer to no one—absolutely no one at all.

Lowe and his crew should be investigated themselves. More importantly, their work shows the need for a drastically overhauled system of police accountability.

 

Read more about the Stan Lowe/Bruce Brown/Rollie Woods/OPCC cover-up
of VPD constable Taylor Robinson’s assault on a disabled woman
Read more about B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner
Read more news and comment about police accountability in B.C.