Pubdate: Tue, 31 Jan 2012
Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB)
Copyright: 2012 The Edmonton Journal
Contact: 
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/opinion/letters/letters-to-the-editor.html
Website: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/134
Author: Douglas Quan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?216 (CN Police)

RCMP SCRAPS PLANS TO TRAIN OFFICERS IN ARIZONA

Scathing Report on Sheriff's Office Behind Decision

The RCMP has scrapped plans to send hundreds of officers to Arizona 
for training in recognizing and testing drug-impaired drivers after 
learning that the sheriff's office they had partnered with has been 
accused of engaging in "unconstitutional policing."

A scathing U.S. Department of Justice report recently concluded that 
the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Phoenix engages in racial 
profiling of Latinos, unlawfully stops and arrests Latinos and 
unlawfully retaliates against individuals who criticize the force.

An RCMP official stressed Monday that at no time were Maricopa County 
sheriff's officers going to be involved in teaching the Canadians and 
that the only role of the sheriff's office's was to provide access to 
people in custody at a remand centre who could be evaluated for drug 
impairment.

Still, the seriousness of the allegations against the sheriff's 
office prompted the RCMP to cancel its training sessions in Arizona, 
said Insp. Allan Lucier.

"It was almost immediate after having read the report that this would 
not be a facility that we would associate ourselves with," he said. 
"That just didn't meet our test."

As Postmedia News reported in December, the Mounties had planned to 
spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to run six workshops - each 
three weeks long - in the Arizona city between April 2012 and March 
2013 to train a few hundred RCMP, provincial and municipal police 
officers to detect and test drug-impaired drivers.

Under a Canadian law, which came into effect in July 2008, an officer 
who suspects a driver may be impaired by drugs can demand that the 
driver perform a test of their co-ordination skills. If the driver 
fails that test, the officer can compel the driver to go to the 
police station for a lengthier evaluation by a drug-recognition 
expert. Several hundred Canadian police officers have gone through 
the RCMP's training workshops, which consist of two weeks of 
classroom instruction followed by one week of field certification, 
which requires officers to complete seven to 10 evaluations of 
drug-impaired individuals.

The field-certification portion had been done in conjunction with the 
Maricopa County Sheriff's Office since 2007. Phoenix was considered a 
desirable location, in part because of the relatively large and 
consistent number of drug-impaired individuals who are apprehended in 
the area, Lucier said.

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office - whose commander, Joe Arpaio, 
likes to call himself "America's toughest sheriff" and has received a 
lot of attention for his tough approach to illegal immigration - did 
not respond to repeated calls and emails Monday.

David Eby, executive director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties 
Association, which notified the RCMP about the allegations against 
the sheriff's office last Wednesday, said the RCMP made the right 
call to abandon its training in Arizona.

He urged the Mounties to find a "made-in-Canada" solution and said 
Canadian police agencies should think twice about sending officers 
south of the border for any type of training. "The U.S. has a 
different policing context. . There's a different legal environment, 
different constitutional norms," he said.

In a Dec. 15 letter to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, the U.S. 
Department of Justice's civil rights division said its investigation 
of the force uncovered a "chronic culture of disregard for basic 
legal and constitutional obligations." Among the allegations:

- - Latino drivers are four to nine times more likely to be pulled over 
than non-Latino drivers in that county;

- - detention officers punish Latino inmates who don't follow commands 
given in English and make them sign forms in English without 
translation assistance.

Lucier said Monday the RCMP hasn't decided yet where it will now 
conduct the work-shops.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom