The head of a police watchdog agency under fire for concerns raised about high staff turnover at the Independent Investigations Office says the controversy is not affecting his mandate to investigate police officers involved in incidents causing death or serious injury.
Chief Civilian Director Richard Rosenthal said the agency has produced 60 public reports since it began operating in September 2012 and made multiple submissions to Crown counsel that have led to some prosecutions against officers.
"I've got a significant amount of pride in the fact that even with these conflicts and these challenges, we're getting the work done," Rosenthal told the Courier by telephone Tuesday.
The Rosenthal-led investigations' office, which is based in Surrey, was the subject of a recent review by an all-party special committee of the B.C. Legislature that "expressed concern about reports of operational dysfunction" at the watchdog agency.
The committee released its report this week and recommended the Ministry of Justice "continue to closely review human resources practices" at the investigations office and report publicly within one year on actions taken to address the problems.
The agency has seen at least 20 staff leave, with half or more being former police officers. The agency is down to 24 investigators, with eight vacancies, according to statistics provided to the Courier from the investigations office.
Rosenthal defended the high staff turnover, saying attrition rates in new organizations are "notoriously high." Reasons for leaving include a culture clash between a diverse mix of staff which, in the agency's case, included former officers working with staff with no policing background, he said.
"It's the nature of a startup," said Rosenthal, noting other reasons for people resigning included the agency not being the right fit for them or to seek a better opportunity elsewhere. "You have to be able to roll with the punches. You can't panic because there's some conflict in the organization. You've got to identify it, which is what we did."
The special committee report noted testimony by former agency employees about the "difficult working conditions and conflicts with the IIO's leadership." Problems identified included the need for better conflict resolution and communication and a lack of confidence in senior leadership.
The report also noted a Justice Institute of B.C. review of the agency "raised concerns about practices by both management and staff," which has since led to a separate review of the investigations office's "personnel practices" by the B.C. Public Service Agency.
When asked how much of the problems at the agency can be attributed to his leadership, Rosenthal said there was "an utter and complete lack of consensus" in the committee's report on who was ultimately responsible.
"We're going through a lot of the same things that Northern Ireland went through, that Ontario went through," he said of the similar police watchdog agencies. "It's just the nature of the beast."
To address concerns raised in the committee's report, Rosenthal said the agency has created a two-year strategic plan and will implement an internal communications strategy to minimize conflict.
Rosenthal also plans to hire a chief administrative officer to oversee the plan. The agency recently hired a new chief of investigations who Rosenthal said demonstrated leadership and management skills in his role with the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman's Office and is an expert in investigating critical incidents.
"If you were to ask any organizational development expert, they would tell you that in the first couple of years of a new organization, this is what happens," he said. "You deal with it, you prepare for it, you move on."
Lawyer Douglas King of the Pivot Legal Society, which campaigned for many years for an independent agency to investigate police, said he was concerned about staff conflicts identified within the investigations office. However, King said, he has no evidence to convince him that such conflict is affecting how incidents are investigated.
"For the most part,I think people are satisfied with how the office has been doing," he said, although he didn't agree with Rosenthal appointing retired police officers as "special advisors" in the investigation regarding the RCMP's shooting of veteran Gregory Matters. "We've seen charges come from the investigations, which is something we didn't have before. So you've got to give them credit for that."
mhowell@vancourier.com
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