Careless storage of a firearm can get you a few years in prison.
We only mention this because the Victoria Police Department is missing a shotgun. It was stolen, lost or misplaced. Along with a bunch of riot equipment. Missing.
We do not expect that the police will investigate themselves for the unsafe storage of a firearm, and it is not why we bring it up. It is yet another example of bungling police.
That police officers make mistakes is a fact. That police officers are dishonest is also a fact. Some may be more honest than the general population, but the police still make mistakes and tell lies just like everyone else.
The Immediate Roadside Prohibition scheme was founded on the false assumption that the police are always honest, that they do not make mistakes and that their equipment is always functioning perfectly. This false assumption is threaded through the scheme. It is the reason you are not permitted to have the police answer any questions at your hearing. It is the reason that the Government concluded that 30 minutes is all you would be allowed for your hearing. It is the reason that they obstruct attempts to access further disclosure.
It seems pathetic and strange to us that literate adults, people who probably read newspapers and have seen the litany of police screw-ups in this province, could have supported a scheme that does not permit the accused to properly challenge the evidence.
In any event, the police make mistakes, they lack objectivity and sometimes they lie.
Which brings us to the issue of charge approval.
The same Government that brought you the IRP scheme now wants to hand the charge approval process over to the police. We suspect that the decision has already been made, but the plan is to do some consultation to avoid an HST-like scandal. It is what the police want, and they seem to get whatever they want in our current political climate. What does it mean for people in BC?
Right now the police in BC forward their files to Crown Counsel where a prosecutor will review the evidence and make a decision concerning whether to approve a charge and what the charge should be. The prosecutors do their best to be objective. The police evidence is usually given significant weight in their review of the file, which is not inappropriate.
The good thing is that someone who is not involved in the investigation and who understands how evidence unfolds in court ultimately makes the decision whether there is a substantive likelihood of successful prosecution. So bad files rarely make it to court. Prosecutors approving charges is a small layer of bureaucracy that saves taxpayers millions in futile or wrongful prosecutions.
So what this means for British Columbians is that you will have a greater chance of being wrongfully prosecuted and your tax money will be used to prosecute cases that should never get to court.
We see that the Government is once again (naively) going down a certain path because they do not understand the implications of a policy decision.
We understand that the Victoria Police are hard at work lobbying for this change. We would advise the Victoria Police to rather spend their time finding their lost shotgun.