Finger pointing at Missing Women Inquiry
Posted June 5, 2012 8:29 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The two police forces that together failed to stop serial killer Robert Pickton have ended a public inquiry pointing their fingers at each other.
The Vancouver police and the RCMP have both faced allegations that missteps by individual officers and apathy among senior management led to badly flawed investigations that were unable to stop Pickton, even as it became more likely that he was behind the disappearances of sex workers from the Downtown Eastside.
Both have offered apologies for not doing more, but neither will accept blame.
The Vancouver police insist that the fault lies at the feet of the RCMP, while the Mounties argue the opposite.
The two forces were conducting separate but related investigations in the late 1990s and early 2000s — Vancouver into the disappearances of sex workers, and the RCMP into Pickton as a potential suspect. Eventually, the police combined forces to form a joint investigation, dubbed Project Evenhanded.
Vancouver police lawyer Tim Dickson told the inquiry that while police in the city investigated missing person cases involving sex workers, the Mounties took responsibility for the investigation of Pickton because he lived in their jurisdiction.
The RCMP, however, rejected the Vancouver Police Department’s suggestion that the Mounties were solely responsible.
RCMP lawyer Cheryl Tobias says the two forces should have combined their efforts much earlier, but she notes that didn’t happen because Vancouver police were slow to realize the gravity of the investigation.
Both forces have issued apologies for not doing enough to catch Pickton. But both forces have also insisted their officers did the best they could at the time and they shouldn’t be judged with the benefit of hindsight.
Commissioner Wally Oppal has heard from dozens of witnesses, including current and former members of the Vancouver police and the RCMP.
His final report is due by Oct. 31 and will detail what each police force did and resolve conflicts in the testimony at the inquiry.
Closing arguments are scheduled to wrap up on Wednesday.
Pickton was arrested in February 2002 and eventually convicted of six counts of second-degree murder. The remains or DNA of 33 women were found on his farm, though he told an undercover police officer that he killed a total of 49.
