Police Investigating Police

The deaths of two Montreal men give Quebec the opportunity to introduce civilian oversight for cases of police-involved deaths.

Montreal is mourning the deaths of Mario Hamel, a mentally ill homeless man, and Patrick Limoges, an innocent bystander, at the hands of police. La Presse's Rima Elkouri pleads for an end to the practice of the Sûreté du Québec investigating such incidents so that the public can find out why as many as 10 shots were loosed on Hamel. “The problem is not that [these investigations] are necessarily poorly done,” writes Elkouri. “The problem is that there is no guarantee that they are well done.” A civilian oversight agency, like Ontario's Special Investigations Unit, would help to make certain that dozens of questions surrounding this case, many of which Elkouri raises, aren't swept under the rug.

Limoges' death “is the latest and most shocking in a string of controversial police shootings in Montreal,” writes Graeme Hamilton in the National Post, “and if it does not push the province to change its approach to such incidents, it is hard to imagine what will.” Before Limoges and Hamel, there was Mohamed Anas Bennis in 2005 and, most famously, teenager Fredy Villanueva in 2008. Investigators do not have to make the details of their cases public, and, as the coroner's report on Villanueva uncovered, the SQ didn't even bother interviewing the two officers linked to his death. “The last thing police in Montreal and elsewhere need is a public perception that officers can fire their weapons with impunity,” says Hamilton. “An investigation by a friendly police force with a history of looking the other way is not going repair the damage.”

Peggy Curran of The Montreal Gazette analyzes whether the incident could have been prevented if Montreal's police officers had more Tasers at their disposal. Most of the force's Tasers, however, were decommissioned after it was found that they did not meet safety standards. “Coincidence or not, the number of police shootings, as well as use of other 'intermediary weapons' such as pepper spray and night sticks, has climbed as use of Taser stun guns has tumbled,” says Curran. Police in Toronto, meanwhile, say Tasers have proven to be “lifesavers,” particularly when used to subdue mentally ill suspects, such as Hamel. To have this incident change nothing in Montreal's police force would be nearly as tragic – and senseless – as the deaths themselves.