One of the themes of our blog, aside from IRPs, is “Cops Gone Wild.” We see all sorts of stupid and discreditable behaviour from police officers around BC. Often the behaviour is less Wild and more careless or stupid. And sometimes it’s more disturbing than Wild. But we think that we are witnessing another side-effect of the IRP scheme – more and more we see police acting as though they are not bound by the rules that govern the rest of us.
Police above the law is something that Kyla was thinking about when she took the above photo a few months back. The pic is of a Vancouver police car parked in a no-parking zone (note that the curb is painted yellow). There is at least one available parking space visible. This was in a Safeway parking lot. They were probably responding to a shoplifting call.
Section 122 of the Motor Vehicle Act exempts police officers and other emergency vehicles from complying with many of its provisions. The Regulations state that these exemptions only apply if the police officer is responding to an emergency situation and has reasonable and probable grounds to believe that the harm caused by violating the Motor Vehicle Act is outweighed by the potential for harm in the emergency situation.
A few months back a Kelowna police officer was issued a violation ticket for parking in a disabled parking stall in a shopping mall. The officer got in trouble. One suspects that the only reason that this officer was disciplined for behaving like they were above the law was because it was a disabled spot.
As far as the photo above is concerned, the MVA does not apply to Safeway parking lots or disabled parking spaces. Many of these are governed by city by-laws. But the principle of the exception is the same: police, like everyone else, must adhere to the rules and restrictions unless there is a justifiable emergency situation. That does not include an emergency doughnut run. And a shoplifting call is not an emergency.
As criminal defence lawyers, we get the privilege of driving throughout the lower mainland on a near-daily basis to attend court dates for our clients. Since we spend so much time in our vehicles, it is not unusual for us to see police officers, especially at or near courthouses.
Often, we see police vehicles violating provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act. Recently there was a police motorcycle parked on the sidewalk right in front of the Richmond courthouse. Regularly we see police vehicles parked in no-stopping zones where it’s really unsafe just because there aren’t any other easy spots to park.
We don’t expect the police to be perfect – they’re humans after all, but the problem is that if there is no oversight of the police there is nothing to stop bad behaviour. This is a particular problem of the IRP scheme. We see a significant reduction in the quality of police work since the IRP scheme came into place because the OSMV inadvertently (or otherwise) encourages Charter breaches by not providing Charter remedies.
Because the courts no longer hear about some of the stupid or awful things some police officers have done, there are fewer repercussions and consequently the police are becoming more arrogant. And the police start to behave as though they’re above the law.
If you follow our blog and you have Twitter, have a little fun with us and Tweet us your photos of police cars parked where they shouldn’t be parking. Our Twitter handle is @VanCrimLawyer