TO SERVE AND PROTECT

There is, we fear, a problem in the Ottawa police force. How deep
this problem runs is difficult to determine, but there is mounting
evidence that some members of the force are playing loose with the rules.

The latest allegation is that an Ottawa police officer tried to
extract a confession from a man by threatening to charge his parents
and three sisters. Police indeed laid charges against the family
members, though the Crown promptly withdrew them.

The accusation that police charged a suspect's family members for the
purpose of intimidation has been made by the suspect, his relatives
themselves and their lawyers. The officer's lawyer denies the allegations.

News of these accusations follows the collapse of the case against
the man. The case was thrown out because, according to a judge, the
police violated the suspect's Charter rights. The officers improperly
named the man as a suspect in another case -- a murder case -- to get
a judge to approve a wiretap on his phone.

Were these the only recent incidents of questionable police conduct,
they would still be cause enough for concern. Unfortunately, there
have been more:

- - A disturbing videotape from a Montreal Road Tim Hortons shows
police using what many reasonable people would consider unnecessary
force in their takedown of a 43-year-old man. The officers charged
the man with a number of offences including resisting arrest, but
after viewing the tape the Crown dropped the charges.

- - A provincial adjudicator said an officer was overzealous in
shooting a protester with a Tazer at a protest in 2003.

- - An adjudicator for the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner
said the police service was wrong to cite "national security" as its
reason for withholding information about plans for the G20 and G8
meetings held in Ottawa in 2001.

- - Julie Cayer was assaulted by police during a 2000 arrest on a
downtown street.

- - The Ontario Human Rights Commission has disagreed with the findings
of an internal police investigation that cleared six officers in a
2004 bar raid in which the police were accused of brutality and
racial profiling. The case has been referred to the Ontario Human
Rights Tribunal.

It's remarkable that, given the lack of openness from the police
department, so much detail is known about these incidents. It helps
that some were videotaped, but it makes us wonder what else is going
on that the public doesn't know about.

Ottawa's Police Services Board needs to remind Chief Vince Bevan that
the effectiveness of a police department is a function of the public
confidence in it. Right now that confidence is being shaken.

This is an opportunity for leadership by new PSB chairman Eli
El-Chantiry and new board member Mayor Bob Chiarelli. The citizens of
Ottawa, not to mention the many highly professional police officers
in this community who value their reputations, expect no less.