There was always something vaguely unsettling about the involvement of the Winnipeg Police Service's internal affairs unit in the criminal investigation of Derek Harvey-Zenk, the Winnipeg cop who killed Crystal Taman.
Why would a police unit that normally conducts internal administrative reviews be at the forefront of a criminal investigation of an incident that took place outside its jurisdiction?
Thursday at the judicial inquiry of Taman's death, we learned that our vague discomfort was justified.
The inquiry produced an unvarnished glimpse into the workings of the professional standards unit, the internal affairs office of the Winnipeg Police Service. And while it may be unfair to form an opinion on one case, the inquiry found evidence strongly suggesting there is a problem with professional standards at the PSU.
Intense questioning by commission counsel David Paciocco painted a picture of a unit that was intimidated by the officers involved in the tragedy, and absent of the intestinal fortitude needed to dig deep into the tragedy it was tasked to investigate.
That the PSU was even involved in the criminal investigation of Harvey-Zenk is a tale unto itself.
The PSU is alerted any time an officer is charged with a criminal office, so it can gather evidence for a suspension hearing. However, East St. Paul police, which had command of the investigation, asked PSU to interview witnesses because they were short on resources.
While East St. Paul focused on the witnesses to the collision, the PSU set out to interview more than two dozen off-duty cops who attended a shift-end party at Branigan's restaurant on Leila Avenue the night before Taman died and the restaurant staff. For more than six hours, Paciocco grilled Insp. Jim Poole and Det. Sgt. Roger Girard on the details of their investigation. In almost all regards, it appears the PSU's effort was inadequate. Paciocco was relentless as he listed for the two officers all the things a good investigator would have done in a case like this.
Paciocco noted good investigators would employ a healthy skepticism in their interviews, and would look for evidence to "test" the officers' statements. The investigators would meticulously reconstruct events at the restaurant and at the house party that took place afterwards. And they would recover records from the restaurant that might reveal how much the officers had to drink.
These are, of course, all the things the inquiry lawyers and investigators have done and if the testimony to date is any indication, it was well worth the effort. This mind-numbing examination had brought new revelations to the inquiry on an almost daily basis.
During his testimony, Girard conceded with the blush of resignation the PSU had not performed these basic tasks, the backbone of a criminal investigation.
Throughout Paciocco's questioning of the two former PSU members, one issue kept coming up time and time again. Both Poole and Girard insisted the PSU operates with the belief anything a police officer tells them is the truth, unless they can uncover compelling evidence to the contrary. Of course, they were forced to grudgingly admit they didn't put much effort into finding that evidence. Paciocco's intense examination suggested the PSU -- despite folklore that might suggest internal affairs units are driven to nail bad cops -- had neither the inclination nor the skill set to conduct an impartial criminal investigation of one of its own.
Poole and Girard accepted the statements of police who spent the night drinking with Harvey-Zenk at face value. And by their own testimony, they disregarded concerns about the obvious motivation of the officers to withhold evidence to protect themselves, and their fellow cops, from professional, civil and possibly criminal liability.
In the end, the PSU didn't find any evidence Harvey-Zenk was impaired when he killed Taman. Of course, it seems quite clear the PSU didn't look all that hard to find it.
There is good news out of Thursday's testimony. If the provincial government is looking for evidence to justify creation of an independent police commission to investigate incidents like this, they'll find it at this inquiry.
dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
PREVIOUS
