OTTAWA — The RCMP plans to ask outsiders to investigate serious incidents involving Mounties.
Commissioner William Elliott says cases in which officers are linked to death, serious injury or criminal behaviour will be referred to provincial or federal organizations for investigation.
Where no such regimes exist, the policy allows the national force to ask an “external law-enforcement agency or other duly authorized investigative agency” to conduct the probe.
And in cases where that’s not possible, the RCMP may appoint at least two Mounties from another province, along with independent observers to review their findings.
Any officers assigned to investigating their own will be screened for possible conflict of interest and, where possible, the primary investigator should outrank the subject of the investigation.
Last August the watchdog over the Mounties said the RCMP should not investigate their own members in the most serious cases — especially when someone has died — in order to avoid conflict of interest.
Until now, the national police force has had discretion to decide how such investigations will unfold.