Police reform advocates say SIRT doesn't have the teeth to hold the RNC accountable. What will?

Advocates for police reform in Newfoundland and Labrador say the latest watchdog report on alleged sexual misconduct by officers has laid bare gaping chasms in the province's system for pursuing complaints against police forces.

The report, issued last week by the director of the province's serious-incident response team, or SIRT, revealed six discrete files on at least one Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officer involving sexual misconduct and "inappropriate" behaviour while on duty.

The RNC received many of those complaints in 2017. No charges were laid, despite SIRT director Mike King's opinion that sex assault and breach of trust charges should have been pursued in one of the instances, when an on-duty officer allegedly kissed and groped a woman in his patrol car.

That officer agreed to resign from the force shortly after, the report said.

"It confirms and adds further evidence to many of the claims that we've been making publicly for some time now," said Justin Campbell, a spokesperson for First Voice, a coalition of organizations advocating for police reform in the province.

"Unfortunately, this isn't an isolated case. There are repeated situations like this coming up where there is a lack of accountability and a lack of transparency from police, and no apparent recourse to fixing those problems."

First Voice issued a draft of its own report last month, proposing the formation of a civilian police oversight board to monitor police forces in Newfoundland and Labrador and handle misconduct complaints.

The current system gives complainants only two options: to complain to the Royal Newfoundland ConstabularyPublic Complaints Commission, or to SIRT, which only pursues criminal investigations and is composed of a lawyer, a civilian investigatorand two seconded police officers.

Using police officers to investigate police misconduct is "the wrong approach," said Campbell.

"The cases that are cited here best serve to show the limitations of that."

A civilian board, in contrast, would "ensure that the police are behaving the way that people would expect them to," Campbell said.

Campbell says leaving police out of the complaints process could encourage people to come forward, particularly those who aren't interested in a solution that involves criminal court.

The complainant in the alleged groping case, he notes, was not interested in participating in a SIRT-led probe. So the agency's findings ended there, with King writing that the team had reached a dead end without more information from the public.

"[That] shows that SIRT is playing a very specific, even limited, function here," Campbell said.

"Their job is to open criminal cases into police misconduct. But it also shows that they don't necessarily have the trust of segments of the population in this case, particularly women."

'It does not seem quite right to me'

Lawyer Lynn Moore, who's representing several women suing the province over RNC sex assault allegations, nodded to the "broad reach" of the alleged misconduct that's unfolded over the years.

"The vast majority of the people that were reported on are not the same people that I've been speaking to," Moore said. "It is disturbing to see how far this has gone and how many people are involved."

Moore, too, says complainants need an alternative to SIRT, which she said confirmed to her that it was only interested in pursuing criminal investigations.

"Criminal matters can be very difficult for survivors of sexual assault," Moore said, adding that conviction rates are historically poor.

"There are other options that are available. It's unfortunate that SIRT is not interpreting its legislation to allow them to investigate serious incidents, as opposed to just matters that could potentially involve crimes."

The RNC, she says, should also be tackling the problem head-on. "This sort of problem, if it's nipped in the bud, can really prevent more serious things from from happening," Moore said.

"I think it's very disturbing that the RNC was aware of a number of instances of inappropriate behaviour with sexual overtures or sexual violence, and they did not conduct a full-scale [investigation]. Documents have been lost. The records have been purged. It seems to me that this should have been treated much more seriously by the RNC.

"And I questionthe openness and transparency of a procedure that sees an officer resign and go away, as opposed to a more fulsome investigation. It does not seem quite right to me."

CBC News asked the RNC for an interview Thursday, but the force declined, saying members required time to review the SIRT report.

A second interview request was declined Monday.

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