Vancouver, May 31: One of B.C.’s police watchdogs says it wants to go outside the province to find an investigator into an astonishing series of allegations about what happened in a course that trains undercover police officers.
B.C. Municipal Undercover Program, was shut down abruptly earlier this month following allegations several officers went to extreme lengths in a course scenario to prove they are not a cop.
Those actions are alleged to include exposing genitalia, defecating on another officer, penetrating an officer using a vegetable, and removing feminine hygiene products.
That sounds disgusting if those allegations are correct. It’s appalling, frankly,” said B.C. Solicitor-General Mike Farnworth
Some two dozen officers attended the course at the Sheraton Wall Centre in downtown Vancouver, sources said. They came from a wide variety of agencies including the Vancouver Police Department and Metro Vancouver Transit Police.
The course itself is run under the B.C. Association of Municipal Chiefs of Police, as opposed to the Justice Institute of B.C.
That order would have kept the investigation in the province — but given the sheer number of municipal police forces involved, the agency that oversees police misconduct investigations said it would go out of the province.
“The alleged misconduct involves municipal police officers from multiple B.C. municipal police departments and is alleged to have occurred within the course activities,” said Cameron Loveless of the OPCC. “In light of the number of B.C. municipal police agencies involved, the commissioner has written the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General to seek assistance in identifying an investigative body appropriately independent of any B.C. agencies.”
Critics say they want an independent investigation into a fairly secretive realm of policing, and raised questions about what financial resources were spent and whether it needed to be at a downtown Vancouver hotel.
