Pol

A year ago in this space,
the first few months of
Vancouver's newly
appoiated chief consta-
ble, Bruce Chambers,
was examined with a
cautious, yet relatively
charitable eye.

He was an unknown and
unproven entity, parachuted in
from the barely-thriving
metropolis of Thunder Bay,
Ontario. .

The police board in
Vancouver hired Chambers
from a short fist of candidates
that included several serving
Vancouver officers and the
current chief constable in
Calgary, Christine Silverberg.

The local candidates were
so busy jockeying for position,
they lost sight of the main
goal: to demonstrate an atti-
tude that put the department
and the city first and their
egos somewhat further down
the list.

The ensuing soap opera
reduced the short list to only
Chambers and Silverberg.

‘With a substantial amount of
. baggage dogging Silverberg’s

steps, not to mention her four
bodyguards, Chambers was
left as the only reasonably
suitable candidate. The board
was advised at the time to re-
open the competition instead
of selecting the default candi-
date. Unfortunately, they did-
n’t listen.

In the ensuing year since
Chambers was appointed to
the top job, he has demon-
strated some questionable
management ability.

For starters, he marched at
the head of the Gay Pride

- parade, then neglected to

show up for the annual dinner
honoring the officers who had
retired in the past year. Major
faux pas.

/¢ set about re-organizing
the entire operations of the

-. police department, some six
times larger than the one he'd .

come: from. All with virtually
no input from the men and

womien who had the know!l-
edge and experience to assist

im.
He pushed his plans on the
department by saying, “if
you’re not on the bus, you'll
et run over by it.” Not exact-
ly from Team Building 191.
In February, he tried to

} show his toughness by arbi-

trarily suspending three offi-
cers before they had been

~ found guilty of any sort of

misconduct, tossing duc
process out the window along
with what remained of the

: ‘support of the rank and file.

lore recently, Chambers

—- who has taken to calling
himself “Chief of Police,”
American terminology despite
the fact the Police Act. specifi-
cally designates the title as
“Chicf Constable” — has

ushed so hard to accomplish
his re-structuring of the
department, he has needlessly
cost the city’s taxpayers hun-
dreds of thousands of dollars.

So desperate is the current
cash crunch, courtesy of
Chambers, that all police over-
time has been severely cur-
tailed.

In a confidential memo
obtained by the North Shore
News, all district commanders
and duty officers are given
their marching orders.

The memo reads:

“Effective immediately and
until further notice:

“1) ALL Discretionary
Overtime (projects) is hereby
cancelied.

“2) ALL necessary over-

Knight

| crime and
Bb) punishment

time to meet personnel mini-
mums must be authorized by
the District management or
the Dury Officer.

“3) ALL Extended tours of
Duty” (cg. the result of a seri-
ous crime investigation) must
be approved by the Dury
Officer in the absence of the
District management.

“4) ALL overtime incurred
by members must be reported
and explained to District man-
agement by the members
NCO.”

The memo is signed by
Terry Blythe, “Deputy Chief
of Police, Commanding
Operations Division.” Blythe
used to be Deputy Chie
Constable. I should note the
above is written verbatim,
including emphasis, from the
memo.

What this is saying is very
concerning. Clearly the over-
time budget of the depart-
ment is virtually used up and
the fiscal year is not even half
over,

Why is this? Has crime sky-
rocketed of late? Well, not if
you believe the chief’s statisti-
cal data chiming the crime
rates in most categories are
falling. (Something disputed
by many street cops.)

Chambers was so intent on
his June 2 target date for the
implementation of his re-orga-
nization, he ordered all

«ts to be in place, come
what may. P

Well, the result has been
chaos.

This summer alone has

Onn oe ae

resulted in over 100 shifts of
“call outs” at double time to
fill vacant positions for
sergeants. This item alone has
cost over $100,000.

Essentially, there are
approximately 25 vacant
sergeant positions and there
are simply not enough sub-
stantive sergeants on the read,
supervising, to allow any re-
scheduling to cover the vacan-
cits,

This has bcen going on for
months, Why Chambers has
left these positions vacant is
anyone’s guess considering
they had a promotional com-
petition just last year that gen-
crated a sufficient list of quali-
fied candidates.

Wasted money doesn’t
stop there. The brand new
police building on Cambie
had to be renovated to
accommodate re-assigned
squads, like traffic, from 312
Main St. Then there’s the
gencrous severance packages

fox all those senior officers
Chambers decided the city
could do without.

The re-organization has, in
itself, been a joke. There are
now what are being referred
to as “ghost squads” in the
department. These are paper
lists of officers assigned to a
specific squad, when, in fact,

¢ whole lot are on extended
leave or otherwise not avail-
able for work. Yer they are
shown on operational
strength. ,

The department was
severely fractured by the polit-
ical inhghting of the deputy
chiefs vying for the top job
when former chief, the late
and sorely missed, Ray
Canuel, announced his retire-
ment. Morale was at a low
ebb not seen since the days of
the Marshall enquiry.

I scarcely thought it possi-
We, but it is even lower now.
Guys come to work and have

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ice squads in chaos

to wait sometimes as long as
two or three hours just to get
a patrol car so they can go out
and try to do their job.

Why?

There’s litde money avail-
able in the fleet budget. Not
because the money wasn’t
originally allocated, but,
according to my sources,
because a portion has been
diverted to cover the cost
overruns of the re-organiza-
tion. The timepiece of choice
among veteran officers has
become a calendar not a
watch — easier to count the
days to pension and a reprieve
from the nuthouse.

In the interim, it is the tax-
paving citizens who have to
pay the freight in more ways
than simple dollars and cents.
Service has inevitably suffered
in spite of the best efforts of
the cops on the street. Now
with the overtime ban, it will
undoubtedly suffer even

more.
Ir's hard to believe this guy

was the best available at the

time. —tknight@direct.ca

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