This month Vancouver police are telling their side of the story to community leaders through a citizens' police academy.
Over eight sessions, officers representing the department's various sections, from emergency response to major crime, will offer insight into police operations to more than 20 members of various justice, social support and ethnic groups to balance an "incorrect, missing and negative vision of the police that the media often portrays," as stated in the program's invitation letter.
Of six presenters Saturday, Sgt. Ron Beig, of the Professional Standards Section tasked with investigating police misconduct, attempted to spark conversation through controversy by offering opinions - independent of the Vancouver Police Department - on "unfair, unprofessional and biased" news coverage of a 2007 St. Patrick's Day dustup on Granville Street between off-duty firefighter Curtis Mason, his son Grant and several arresting officers.
Beig claimed a clip of the violent scuffle posted on YouTube and later broadcast by television stations, which showed an officer striking the elder Mason three times with a baton, offered an incomplete record of the incident, in turn allowing seeds of mistrust to be planted among the public against Vancouver police.
Some academy participants bristled at Beig's personal opinions on Taser use, the improbability of a civilian body to investigate police transgressions due to financial constraints and a police complaints process that can waste "very good resources [by] taking on minor issues some of the time."
But, most ranged from content to eager to hear from the officer who has served Vancouver for 21 years and other police brass who presented black and white descriptions of department operations coloured with personal views.
The openness of the officers impressed participants.
"Certainly as a citizen hearing that the police don't actually agree, that they're not automatons, and they do have their opinions and ideas is good, I think," said participant Richard O'Donnell, coordinator of Boys R Us, a drop-in program for male and transgender sex trade workers. "You're a human being so you should have the power to question and the ability to question."
Vancouver Citizens' Police Academy concludes Nov. 28.
