A while back we broke the story that Approved Screening Devices (ASD) used by the Port Moody Police Department were not being calibrated properly. As a result of our having gone public with this information, the Port Moody Police announced that they had an external unit investigate their actions. They never acknowledged that there was a problem with their ASD calibration.
We wanted to know more. So we made a Freedom of Information Request to the Port Moody Police asking for all the information they had about the steps they had taken to address the problem. We received an incomplete but nevertheless enlightening response in January.
The information that was disclosed to us as a result of our request was largely censored. Entire pages of material were blacked out. It makes you wonder what they have to hide this point in time.
The Port Moody Police claim that they are entitled to withhold this information because it is the subject of a Police Act complaint. But our concern is that these records are necessary for people who received IRPs to deal with their cases in Court. What records we were able to inspect confirm many of our conclusions about ASDs and the information that is forwarded to the Office of the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles.
When we made submissions to the Superintendent’s office about the calibration issue in Port Moody, the response was dismissive — that they had not heard anything about the problem. In late December a reporter from CTV asked the OSMV if they had any information about problems with ASDs. They said that they had never received any information in that regard from any police force. The records we received indicate that not only was the Superintendent’s police liaison alerted to the issue, but that the OSMV was addressed with specific regard to the calibration problem. So to us the impression is that of a poorly choreographed cover-up.
What was also confirmed for us is the fact that the failure to follow proper calibration procedures had a definite impact on the accuracy and reliability of the ASD test results. In calibration tests performed after the error was identified and the method corrected, devices were popping up out of calibration. One device had to be tested and re-calibrated five times. Another device was put through five attempts before the officer in charge of calibration gave up and took the unit out of service.
It seems that overusing the simulator solution impacted these devices, some to such a degree that they could not be recalibrated. This is chilling news for many of our clients and many residents of Port Moody who received IRPs using these devices. How many innocent people are now out of pocket in excess of $5000 because of this mistake? Why did the OSMV deny knowledge of the problem?
We are not done looking into this issue. We have asked the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner to investigate the records and to determine whether they should be disclosed to us. Our goal is to get every piece of information to which we are entitled in the hopes that we can right some of the wrongs the IRP scheme has caused.
The Port Moody Police have indicated that the investigation will not be completed until April. This is ridiculous. The material disclosed indicates that they know precisely what the problem was and that we were absolutely accurate in our assertion. They know that they calibrated the devices incorrectly. If we did not publicize it, they would have never known about the problem. There is no reason to wait to release this to the public except to try to bury the story or to assure that everyone who got an IRP in Port Moody must suffer despite the police screw-up.
Are the Port Moody Police protecting the public or themselves? As a taxpayer how do you feel about paying for 6-month investigation to uncover the information that we sorted out in less than 30 minutes?