MAJORITY OF COMPLAINTS DISMISSED IN POLICE PROBE

VANCOUVER -- They shook the city in 2003 with allegations of
excessive force at the hands of Vancouver police officers.

Fifty people from the margins of society also accused the police of
illegal searches and so-called starlight tours, where police pick up
someone they suspect is likely to commit a crime and drop them off in
an isolated area in another part of town.

However, Police Complaints Commissioner Dirk Ryneveld says only two
allegations against officers could be substantiated.

In his final report, released yesterday, on an investigation into the
litany of allegations, Mr. Ryneveld endorsed Vancouver Police Chief
Jamie Graham's handling of almost all the complaints.

After noting steps taken by the provincial government, the Vancouver
Police Board and the police department after the complaints, he said
he was closing the file without holding any public hearings. His
report failed to quell the charges against the department.

"We had 50 of the most marginalized people in our community put their
necks on the line for this complaint process," lawyer David Eby,
spokesman for Pivot Legal Society, a legal advocacy group, said
yesterday in an interview.

They will not accept Mr. Ryneveld's conclusions, Mr. Eby said.

He said several complaints were unsubstantiated because police
officers refused to co-operate with RCMP investigators.

The Vancouver Police Department did all it could to undermine an
independent investigation of the complaints, he said, adding,
"Unfortunately, we think they were successful."

The next step will likely be a legal response. Lawyers will consider
options for those whose complaints were not substantiated. Their
response will be announced next week, Mr. Eby said.

Chief Graham was unavailable for comment yesterday.

People from the Downtown Eastside filed the complaints, backed by
sworn affidavits and medical records, in June, 2003. Among the
complainants were a man who said police kneed him in the groin, and
he had to be taken to the hospital with a ruptured testicle; and two
suspects in a stolen-vehicle investigation who said police kicked and
punched them after they tried to flee on foot in the Downtown Eastside.

As an independent investigator, the RCMP looked into 55 allegations
of brutality and misconduct set out in the affidavits by the 50
people. They substantiated 11 complaints against officers and decided
that three raised issues requiring a review of policies.

In response, Chief Graham launched an investigation and concluded
that none of the complaints had merit.

Mr. Ryneveld asked him to take a second look at five complaints.
Chief Graham decided that two of the five dealt with policy or
service issues that were in the jurisdiction of the Vancouver Police
Board and one of the complaints could not be backed up.

But he concluded in retrospect that two complaints were valid.

In one incident, officers had improperly taken David Morales from the
Downtown Eastside to Kitsilano and failed to write up the appropriate
report for use of force. In the second, a man was illegally
handcuffed and taken away in a police wagon for the bylaw offence of
urinating in a back lane.

Although almost all the complaints were dismissed, their impact was
significant, Bruce Brown, a spokesman for the complaints
commissioner, said in an interview.

"Even though they were not substantiated, they were taken seriously.
The RCMP investigation resulted in positive change in the way the
Vancouver Police Department does its business," Mr. Brown said.

The package of complaints forced a reconsideration of the policy of
transporting people suspected of breaching the peace to isolated
areas of the city. Police cannot use an arrest as a mechanism to
control or monitor individuals, Mr. Brown said.

The process clarified that police cannot use force to arrest someone
who is resisting if there are no grounds to make an arrest, he said.

The investigation also revealed processes within the police
department that needed to be fixed, such as note-taking and reporting, he said.