What police was a bit of institutional TEACAPAN, SINALOA, Mexico — The merit of in- troducing institutionalized bribery to B.C.’s civil service suggested itself to me while I was a B.C. Police Commis- sioner, some 10 and more years ago. If it works for Mex- icans, why not for us? The police commission had a problem at that time. We had many problems, but one clings to memory as a prime example of the waste, stupidity and general silliness of the civil service. Although a police public com- plaint system existed, some citi- zens who felt aggrieved about police action thought they could speed up the process by writing directly to the attorney general in Victoria. They did not know that by doing so they were guaran- teeing a delay in the investigation of their complaint. The attorney general of that day insisted that he read every letter addressed to him. This was his natural right and a sensible rule to apply. In the more functional society which Canada once was, the associated delays in investiga- tions would not have been in- tolerable. The AG could have read the letter the day he received it and given it to a secretary for mailing to the police commission. The commission would have received it the next day and mailed it to the police force involved. Total delay could have been 48 to 72 hours. However, this was the 1970s and mails didn’t move that way any more. Neither did bureau- crats. The usual delay in citizen com- plaints reaching the police com- mission offices from the attorney general’s office, at the opposite end of the Tsawwassen ferry ter- minal, was one week. Often it was a full month. The record was set by a com- plaint that took 120 days, four full months, to be relayed from an office in the Legislature buildings to an office at Granville and Hastings. This was almost long enough for the complaint to be rejected without investigation because of the delay in receiving it. What was needed was simple. It was a young man or woman in the AG's office, preferably over age 12, who would direct the original citizen’s complaint to the attorney general and fax a copy directly to the police commission or the police force involved. The attorney general would not be deprived of his boundless right to read his own mail, but also a police investigation would not be Two men face B&E charges TWC NORTH Vancouver men face break, enter and theft charges following a break in to a home located in ithe 8800-block of Lawrence Way in West Vancouver Monday afternoon. Upon returning home just be- fore 4 p.m. on Monday, a man and wife found two men loading their television set into a parked Honda Civic. The man tried to identify the licence plate number of the suspect vehicle, but the plate was hidden from view, and one of the suspects allegedly told Shore coffee mug. Y.. may have seen Eco-Heroes honored in the EcoUpdate feature that runs every se- cond Wednesday. You can nominate your favorite Eco-Hero, the person who has taken that first small, but important, step to making a difference in the world around us. The North Shore News thinks it’s important to recognize the Eco-Heroes in our communi- ty. If you know an Eco-Hero, please submit his or her name to this newspaper and your nominee will have a chance to win an Eco- Hero button and a Going Green on the North Submissions should be sent to Eco-Hero, North Shore News, 1139 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, V7M 2H4. Nominations can also be telephoned to Peggy Trendell-Whittaker, 985-2131, from Monday to Thursday. TWE VOICE OF NORTH AND WEST VANCOUVER SUNDAY + WEDNESOAY + FRIDAY the man he had a gun. The suspects then drove off and West Vancouver Police were call- ed in. The Honda was pursued along the Upper Levels Highway. While police gave chase, jewelry was tossed from the car. © The car was eventually stopped near Eagleridge Drive. David William Haskins, 21, and Sean Jackson Fisher, 20, have since been charged with break, enter and theft in connection with the incident. NOMINATE YOUR [523 995 114 to choose 2 including some with leather delayed for as much as a third of a year. If there are British Columbians out there who think that such a simple matter can be handled simply, they just do not under- stand government. Instead of moving the mail, we held meetings and talked. They were high level meetings, which means expensive. As a petice commissioner, my rank was equivalent to assistant deputy minister in the provincial govern- ment service. Most who attended the meetings were of this rank and one or two often higher. Every one of us was paid con- siderably more money than the press reported we were getting. Collectively, we were unable to accomplish what any 14-year-old could have managed in five minutes at recess time. That was te make the mail move. The meetings were held, one after the other. Nothing much ever went on except that some junior civil servant would draw sample flow charts for us. It is a rare British Columbian who knows how much tax money he pees away on flow charts, It was on one of these occa- sions, staring numbly at yet one Sunroof, Heated Seats, AM/FM Stereo a Cassette. SALE PRICE + GST. f From REDUCED and driver's side air-bag. 1990 MSRP $22,115 Cassette, Heated Front Seats. SALE PRICE + GST. REDUCED 88 NISSAN PULSAR S.E. Automanc, Trot, 32,000 KM 1988 JEEP CHEROKEE 4x4 trac, 4 wheel driw 1967 MERCEDES 230 car | aT ‘ALE 1990 MSRP $29,675 Automatic, Air Conditioning, Power Windows, Metallic Paint, Power Windows, AM/FM Stereo 18.821 one only de VOLVO TRADES FOR EVERY ONE Lined Ph 4 Ite, select $17,995 © cylinder, automatic. clean $2,995 Friday, January 18, 1991 - North Shore News - 9 commission needed bribery more set of boxes and arrows on a chalk board, that bribery pres- ented itself to me as the rational solution. Why not bribe the youngster who opened the AG's mail each morning to immediately fax a copy of a citizen's complaint to us? The bribe, which would be call- ed by some other name, Mordida, say, could be as little as $10 per letter. We could take it from the petty cash drawer. No receipts. No records. Also, nothing that would violate the clear intent of the Police Act. All that would happen would be that citizen complaints would be better handled and some mail clerk in Victoria would have a couple of hundred dollars a year more for discretionary spending on Highland malt whiskey. That bribe system could have saved B.C. taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars in talk time. If the meetings are still going on, as well they may be, the saving could be over $100,000 by now. But the idea just won’t take root in B.C. The Coast Guard tried it once. Applications for water licences were stacked so high that there was a delay of a GST. REDUCED 81 ame semitone $4 O95 | 244 DLO 1 euner, suntou, all service ame semitone $4 O95 | 1975 MERCEDES 240D Top condition, well man- tained, 104,00 miles $6,995 86 VOLVO 244 DL4 etm, Umer 5° $13,995 84 VOLVO 245 GLO hand wo find model Automatic, Paul St. Pierre PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES: year or two in getting one pro- cessed. However, you could pay an Expediating Fee of $500 and have your application moved from the bottom of the pile to the top. No doubt that $500 was placed in general revenue, so the gov- ernment could fool it away with the rest of our taxes, instead of going into the pocket of an of- ficial who might have made some use of it. . Since it has been abandoned, clearly it didn’t work. We shall continue wasting money on the flummery of meetings, typed agendas, flow charts, all atrociously expensive and useless but of that immaculate purity which Latins don’t seem to appre- ciate. a 1990 Volvo 744 GLA V2938 1988 FIERO FORMULA vei 5 a $10,995 39,000 km. 1 owner, fully serviced, $10,995 1986 NISSAN MICRA ideal second car