3502 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

B.C.'s appeal court has upheld a ruling that saw an accused killer acquitted after the exclusion of key evidence because of the "egregious" way police ignored the laws of search and seizure.

In a case that threatens to impact other trials, the province's top court said a B.C. Supreme Court judge was right to exclude a recording of screaming and gunshots from the trial of a man charged with second-degree murder in a 2011 road rage incident — even if the decision doomed the Crown's prospects of conviction.

"The court must not, in these circumstances interfere with the judge's discretionary decision to exclude evidence, even in the face of extremely serious offences that had tragic human consequences," the appeal court said in a ruling released Monday.

https://www.cbc.ca/n...delay-1.7125935

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 27 February 2024 - 01:01 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Standalone police force for Esquimalt feasible but costly, report says

 

It would require spending on new or refurbished police facilities, hiring officers in a time of significant officer shortages, and facing potential legal challenges from unions

 

https://www.timescol...rt-says-8361235

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't understand all of this.  Why doesn't Esquimalt just push for changes, to see it pay for their share of police actions or crimes, rather than strictly by population?

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 27 February 2024 - 02:47 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Saanich police still have liaison officers in the Saanich School District and some private schools, while the Sooke School District maintains a ­longstanding liaison program.

 

Poppe said her group would welcome modifications if the program were reinstated in order to deal with any concerns about students who might not be comfortable seeing an officer in uniform. “We want absolutely every child to be safe at school so they can thrive and be there for their education,” she said.

 

She said any concerns the board has can be worked through. “We just want the school board to open up dialogue and revisit this issue.”

 

Former school-liaison officer Mark Jenkins, who has children in Grades 9, 10 and 12, said at the rally that the program is especially important in the wake of a 2023 report that gangs have been trying to make inroads at Victoria schools. “Those gangs are not going away,” he said.

 

Poppe said she has invited trustees to seminars on the gang issue but none have attended so far. The school board issued an invitation last October for the Victoria and Esquimalt Police Board to meet with them, but the meeting has not yet happened.

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...-office-8361327

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 27 February 2024 - 04:17 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Suspected gang member believed to be recruiting near schools: police chief

The individual, who was arrested, was allegedly recruiting students in parking lots across the street from several schools, Del Manak told the Greater Victoria School Board.


https://www.timescol...e-chief-8365392




Seven street gangs are active in the Greater Victoria area and have successfully recruited members from district high schools and middle schools to traffic drugs and vape pens, Manak said.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 27 February 2024 - 02:04 PM.

[Nparker]

Shame on these gangs for attempting to traffic drugs to high school students. Don't they realize that is the government's purview?

[pontcanna]

[Victoria Watcher]

The Township of Esquimalt will explore re-establishing an Esquimalt police department that would contract with a larger police department in the region for some services.

 

“I really feel like we’ve taken another step forward and I’m feeling very positive,” Mayor Barb Desjardins said Wednesday, a day after council voted unanimously to look at re-establishing the township’s own police force. Since 2002, Esquimalt has had a shared-policing agreement with Victoria, but it has long complained that it pays too large a share of police costs.

 

Council will now have to ratify the motion passed Tuesday night and then ask the province to allow it to investigate the new hybrid policing model.

 

The model, which would include contracting with a larger police force for services like forensics, detention and major crimes investigations, was suggested in a consultant’s report released this week and is similar to one used by Oak Bay police.

 

The report, from Perivale+taylor, said establishing a hybrid model could eventually save Esquimalt $800,000 to $1.2 million a year.

 

Currently, Esquimalt pays about 14 per cent of the Victoria Police Department budget, which is projected to be more than $70 million this year.

 

Desjardins said the decision to go with the hybrid model would provide Esquimalt with “a localized police force where community really is able to provide input as well.”

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...artment-8373345

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 29 February 2024 - 05:42 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Victoria Police Chief Del Manak is taking another run at resurrecting the school police liaison program.

 

It’s a wonder he’d bother, given the insulting treatment that local police have received from key groups during the ­public argument about the program.

 

Particularly the Greater Victoria School Board and the Greater Victoria Teachers’ ­Association, both of which have done remarkable 180-degree flips to come out stridently against a program they once whole- heartedly supported.

 

Manak felt forced to cut the program in 2018 due to the never-ending Victoria-Esquimalt funding argument.

 

The school board of the day and the teachers’ union strenuously objected. The board passed a formal motion to write letters to the municipal councils “outlining the value police liaison officers play in our schools and express our disappointment and concern” about losing them.

 

The letter stressed “negative long-ranging impacts” from losing the police presence. Then-chair Jordan Watters did several interviews about the cancellation.

“They’re able to help [troubled] students along and develop a relationship over time,” she said.

 

The teachers’ union did exactly the same. It wrote to both councils saying the decision put vulnerable students at risk. “To a child, there is a profound difference between having a familiar and trusted person engage and de-escalate, and having a stranger attempt to intervene.”

 

 

https://www.timescol...od-look-8373319

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 29 February 2024 - 05:44 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

When B.C. human rights ­commissioner Kasari Govender strongly urged all B.C. school trustees to shut down school police-liaison programs, she included a condition.

 

“Unless and until they can demonstrate an evidence-based need for them that cannot be made through other services …[or] until the impact of these programs can be established empirically.”

 

Victoria Police Chief Del Manak has now gone public with concerns about intensified and deeply concerning gang ­activities around city schools.

 

Whether it’s empirical or evidence-based enough is a ­judgment call.

 

But it’s hard to understand why anyone would dismiss it. The warning should make it clear that the Greater Victoria School Board’s wrong-headed move last year to cancel the ­program was a bad call. It should be reversed immediately.

 

 

https://www.timescol...rograms-8386938

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 02 March 2024 - 05:18 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Esquimalt council flogging dead horse

Re: “Esquimalt mulls re-establishing its own police department,” Feb. 29.

 

What are Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins and council thinking these days with regard to mulling over re-establishing its own police force?

 

As a homeowner who lives in Esquimalt, I can relate to the overall cost. However, it seems highly unlikely that Solicitor General Mike Farnworth is going to allow any switchover given that it was the Liberal government and minister Rich Coleman who originally mandated the merger between the two police forces back in 2002. One only needs to view the fiasco across the pond with Surrey’s transition to see what an ugly mess that has become.

 

And yet, every few years, Esquimalt goes through this same old song and dance routine at the expense of its taxpayers and all for naught. It’s time both the mayor and council quit flogging this dead horse and moved on to more important issues, like negotiating a better pricing agreement.

 

Shirley Waldon

Esquimalt

 

 

https://www.timescol...apology-8386944

[Victoria Watcher]

Esquimalt council looking to re-establish police department

Council feels they pay too much for VicPD policing services

https://www.vicnews....artment-7324991

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 03 March 2024 - 07:36 AM.

[Kilo95]

Yet another reason why policing and fire need to be amalgamated in the CRD

[Victoria Watcher]

Almost everyone agrees. Where is the leadership though?

I’d be interested to know how common - or uncommon - it is to even see charges for lots of the street disorder we see.

How many of the shoplifters in the recent blitzes are being charged? There was a lot if talk of “referring them to support services” but I’ve never seen any follow-up news of charges or convictions.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 03 March 2024 - 08:08 AM.

[aastra]

 

And yet, every few years, Esquimalt goes through this same old song and dance routine at the expense of its taxpayers and all for naught.

 

It's almost as if politics is just politics for the sake of politics.

[Victoria Watcher]

And on that front, the school doors are still firmly closed to police in the Greater Victoria District. The liaison program was ended because “there are some students and staff who don’t feel safe with police in schools.”

The concern was that racialized students and others could feel traumatized by seeing uniformed officers in schools.

“We’re on the outside looking in,” Manak said Monday. “It’s extremely difficult when we have one hand tied behind our back …”

The board issued a statement responding to his previous plea to drop the ban on police in schools (except in emergencies or for lockdown drills). It was confusing, partly off-topic and contained nothing to indicate it’s going to drop the ill-considered policy imposed last year.

https://www.timescol...schools-8396390


Instead of banning police from schools, let’s work on making “racialized” staff and students feel just fine with police in schools, like the rest of us do.

This is such BS.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 March 2024 - 01:46 AM.

[Nparker]

"Racialized" may be the most idiotic woke term since the use of a plural pronoun to describe a single individual.

[aastra]

 

The concern was that racialized students and others could feel traumatized by seeing uniformed officers in schools.

The board issued a statement responding to his previous plea to drop the ban on police in schools (except in emergencies or for lockdown drills).

 

Police are good when they're good but not good when they're not good. Any weirdo students who might feel traumatized by lockdown drills can go suck an egg.

[aastra]

Everything follows this same pattern. We're fed a steady diet of irreconcilable contradictions which inevitably produce turmoil, trepidation, instability, outrage, etc.

[Matt R.]

Exclusion is inclusion, get that through your thick skull.

[Victoria Watcher]

Oak Bay’s police chief is retiring after his second stint at the helm of the municipality’s force.

 

Mark Fisher, who is retiring on May 31, was appointed to replace the retiring Ray Bernoties in September 2022. Fisher had previously served as police chief in Oak Bay from 2011 to 2014 and as deputy chief from 2020 to 2022.

 

__________________________

 

Fisher said recent health challenges led to the decision to step away from policing at the age of 54 — earlier than he had planned. He said those challenges are “manageable” and he is looking forward to a healthy retirement, which will mean kayaking, hiking, cycling, volunteering — and, of course, spending time with family.

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...-in-may-8419881