When a person commits a crime, they are arrested, and charged by police, but what happens when a police officer commits a crime or police misconduct? The SIU is called. The SIU stands for Special Investigations Unit, which is a civilian law enforcement agency. The SIU investigates incidents involving the police and civilians that have resulted in a serious injury or death.
How did the SIU come about? During hearings in 1988, many people expressed concerns about the truthfulness of the way police investigated other police. “Prior to the formation of the SIU, police forces investigated themselves, or in some instances, another police force was assigned to conduct the investigation. There was a strongly expressed belief that such internal investigations lacked the necessary objectivity required of policing,” says the SIU website. In 1990, a bill was passed to create the SIU to have a separate investigation unit to look into police conduct involving serious injury or death.
At first, the SIU was a band of disorganized, inexperienced civilians. Police never used to trust the SIU, but they had the public’s support. After many difficult investigations, the SIU started to hire retired police officers. This caused a problem in the public’s eye. “The public thinks that all police officers will protect another police officer. That’s not the case,” says Sergeant Rutt, an officer of Orangeville Police. The SIU has been run much better than what they used to be, the people on the team are experienced and qualified to ask the right questions and look for the right evidence.
“The mandate of the Special Investigations Unit is to maintain confidence in Ontario's police services by assuring the public that police actions resulting in serious injury or death are subjected to rigorous, independent investigations,” says the website.
The SIU charges only two percent of the investigations they make. This number reflects that in many investigations, police are not at fault, but the SIU still needs to investigate.
“I was involved with six SIU investigations,” said Sgt. Rutt, “and each time I was treated fairly, even though they had a bad reputation.” The SIU are not there to protect the police, they are there to do their job.
Civilians can rest assured that most of the police are not involved in any conspiracy, and the SIU is there to investigate every death or serious injury.
