B.C. Police Complaint Commissioner Stan Lowe is not satisfied with the Vancouver Police Board’s decision to dismiss a complaint that accused officers of unfairly targeting Downtown Eastside residents in a ticketing blitz.
Lowe now wants the police board to implement a policy to ensure the number of tickets issued by police for minor offences such as jaywalking and illegal vending does not prevent vulnerable residents from seeking police protection.
In a Nov. 21 letter to Mayor Gregor Robertson, who doubles as chairperson of the police board, Lowe recommended the policy incorporate a recommendation made by Wally Oppal when he was commissioner of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry.
Oppal recommended the City of Vancouver and the VPD take “proactive measures” to reduce the number of court warrants issued for minor offences by:
- Reducing the number of tickets issued and charges laid for minor offences.
- Developing guidelines to facilitate greater and more consistent use of police discretion not to lay charges.
- Increasing the ways in which failures to appear [in court] can be quashed early in the judicial process.
“General support for minimizing charging for minor offences was expressed to the Commission because over-criminalization results in a more adversarial relationship between police and the community,” Oppal wrote in his report.
Oppal noted the concern that vulnerable women avoiding a court fine would likely not seek the assistance of police — when in danger — for fear of being arrested on the outstanding court matter.
Lowe’s call for adoption of a policy comes two months after the police board dismissed a complaint from Pivot Legal Society that was supported by the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.
Pivot lodged the complaint in June after revealing — via a Freedom of Information Act request — that 76 per cent of 2,699 jaywalking tickets issued in the city between 2008 and 2012 were to people in the Downtown Eastside.
Pivot lawyer Douglas King noted Oppal’s recommendation when he lodged the complaint with the police board. King said Wednesday that having Lowe refer to Oppal’s recommendation validated the agency’s belief that the VPD should have a policy related to ticketing marginalized people.
“It’s a clear message that [the board] has to come up with something,” King said. “They just can’t take the Missing Women’s report and digest it and that’s the end of it. They actually have to create something policy-wise to make it real.”
A VPD report that went before the police board in September stressed the department’s mass ticketing, which also saw 95 per cent of 1,529 vending tickets issued to Downtown Eastside residents, was warranted to “change behaviour” and prevent accidents and deaths in the neighbourhood.
At the police board’s meeting in September, the mayor said the police department has since worked with city hall and VANDU to implement safety measures in the Downtown Eastside and decrease the number of vending tickets.
The mayor, who is the designated spokesperson for the police board, said in an emailed statement to the Courier that Lowe’s “input could be constructive in our work to make the Downtown Eastside safer for all residents and to ensure the recommendations from the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry are fully implemented.”
Added Robertson: “I look forward to discussing his suggestions with the police board.”
In his letter to the mayor, Lowe also said the VPD needs to provide a more “meaningful comparison” of statistics on jaywalking and the number of pedestrians struck in the Downtown Eastside.
Lowe recommended the VPD produce statistics for jaywalking, per district, from 2002 to 2012, without the incorporation of 2008 statistics — the year the most tickets were issued.
“It is difficult to see how the number of tickets issued in 2008 can be used as a baseline for a comparison to the following years with any meaningful results as the 2008 statistics obviously skewed the sample,” Lowe wrote.
Lowe also recommended the VPD produce statistics for the number of pedestrians struck, per district, from 2002 to 2012, including 2008.
The police board does not meet again publicly until January.
