Vancouver Police Department apologizes for its handling of Robert Pickton case

Vancouver police Deputy Chief Doug LePard has apologized on behalf of the department for its handling of the Robert Pickton investigation.

"I wish to say to the families that we're sorry from the bottoms of our hearts that we didn't catch him sooner and protect more women from being harmed," LePard said on Friday (July 30).

Earlier that day, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld six counts of second-degree murder against Pickton. He has been charged with 20 other counts of murder, but these cases have not proceeded to trial.

"We know that nothing can ever fully compensate those who have suffered and for the lives that have been lost but we hope that allowing this conviction to stand will bring some measure of closure to those who grieve," LePard said.

After moving away from his prepared remarks, he said that he dedicated his adult life to public safety and that he has been willing to risk his life to save others.

"I believe in always doing the right thing," LePard added. "Like all police officers, I've always been willing to risk my life to save others and on occasion, when called upon, I have."

LePard then said that he believes "strongly in the responsibility of the police to protect the vulnerable, and I certainly believe in the principle: do no harm."

He referred to Robert Pickton, who was convicted on six counts of second-degree murder, as a "monster".

"I wish that all the mistakes we could undo, and I wish that more lives could have been saved," LePard said.

He has completed a review of the missing women investigation, and the VPD has promised to make it public after all publication bans are removed and other issues are addressed.

"First, for several years, the VPD has communicated privately to the Provincial Government that it believes a Public Inquiry is necessary for an impartial examination of why it took so long for Robert Pickton to be arrested," the department stated on its Web site. "More recently, the VPD also publicly supported a call for a Public Inquiry by Maggie de Vries, the sister of one of the Missing Women. The VPD will consider the likelihood of a public inquiry in the timing of its release of the Review."

The VPD also stated that it is obliged to inform individuals and agencies mentioned in the review in advance of its release.

"This is complicated by summer absences, and because most of the individuals involved have retired from policing," the department stated. "The VPD must also comply with the provisions of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act regarding release of the Review."

Comments

12 Comments

Pickton is taking the blame for more than his crimes

Jul 31, 2010 at 10:09am

"I wish say to the families that we're sorry from the bottoms of our hearts that we didn't catch him sooner and protect more women from being harmed,"

LePard said on Friday

I call B.S.

Furthermore any idiot understands that there is a lot more to this. Pickton could not have acted alone and he and his brother's "parties" were attended by many local politicians and business leaders.

flipside

Jul 31, 2010 at 11:29pm

As much as I think the VPD are not held accountable for their mistakes, I really dont think they need to apologize in this situation even if they could have done a slightly better job. Pickton, who ever helped him, and the families/communities that allowed their members to live a very risky lifestyle need to take accountability in this. Sorry, but its the truth. How could anyone who lets their family live on the streets of the DTES have the audacity to point fingers at someone else for a negative outcome?! Look at the DTES today and see the thousands shooting poison in their arms and ask yourself where the families are to stop them or help them. Pickton is a drop in the bucket compared to what kills on the DTES yet no one seems to do anything about it.

Personally i think the VPD did a great job handling this case.

**I may also put some blame on the courts for the length a trial like this takes.

C.

Aug 1, 2010 at 8:32am

@flipside,

Check your head.

Look at the DTES today and you see a lot of everyday people doing their best to get by and and others doing their best to help those in need. Look at the DTES today and you'll see the police regularly harassing folks, and last week the whole world saw the VPD pushing a 26 year-old woman with cystic-fibrosis to the pavement and walk away without offering so much as a hand.

To put the responsibility for the tragic and brutal deaths of so many women back on to the families is to ignore the array of inequalities that are sustained by the social and cultural institutions of our province and state. VPD is just the tip of the iceberg. Don't you want to know why it took the VPD so long to act on any of the information they had been receiving for years about a possible serial killer in the DTES?

This 'apology' by Doug LePard is simply a cheap media tactic meant to quell the demand for a public inquiry into the collective ignorance of the VPD. Such an inquiry would not surprisingly reveal that at the core of the department are some of the most insidious racist, sexist and classist attitudes hiding behind "the responsibility of the police to protect the vulnerable."

The way you have individuated this problem by hiving it off from the broader social and economic context that create the possibilities for it to happen and go 'un-noticed' by the VPD only suggest that you are a clueless conservative moron. "Sorry, but its the truth."

JkDeDa

Aug 1, 2010 at 10:36am

Sorry C, but the police didn't make the women become prostitutes and climb into the cars of total strangers. There is some personal responsibility at work here. Yeah I know, hard concept to swallow. And you are right, there are plenty of clean, sober, hardworking scrapping by on the eastside, but you ignored the statement by flipside about how many people die each year from the drugs that the "helpful" health care people support. That's a real crime. I think the police do pretty good thank you.

@ C

Aug 1, 2010 at 11:44am

How long have you lived on the DTES? or do you simply live vicariously through what you read or want to see?

I have lived in gastown for 9 years and have seen everything. You put blame on "inequalities that are sustained by social and cultural institutions of our province" I see no accountability from those choosing a risky lifestyle, and more finger pointing then active family members. While I will agree our government ignores the problems of the DTES and in essence started it by the closure of a mental hospital in the late 90s. The fact is this is nothing new, and you, or any person who has a family member on the DTES are nothing but an unaccountable, finger pointing bleeding heart. The government doing nothing, and the residents of this city not caring or demanding a change is nothing new. So knowing that you have two choices: Help your own family member, or take your approach which is sit on the side lines and bitch at someone else to do it which in your case is the "institutions of province and state". Pathetic.

You see "people doing their best to get by and others doing their best to help those in need". Boy, you really havent been to the DTES lately have you? Go to the stretch of road on hastings between carrell and columbia and see the people disrespecting themselves as much as our city. Stick your head down the alley ways in that area...see how many people you see "doing the best to help those in need". Dodge the countless people who harass you for money for their next fix.

The VPD do a fine job in that area, and should not be expected to fix it. Yes that ass who pushed the dissabeled person to the ground should be charged with assault, but he does not represent the work the VOD does down there. Talk about individuating a problem. kettle black?

Pickton is a murder and will spend the rest of his life behind bars. The fact is he is and was less of a problem in that area compared to the risky lifestyle and choices made by those down there. I have all the pitty in the world for the mentally ill with no one to help and think our city has simply ignored them. What about the rest? Where are their families?

So again I go back to my other post. Where were the families of the Pickton victims before they were murdered? If it wasnt pickton it would have been heroin, or aids etc etc. Should the families not be held somewhat accountable? Should people who sit on the side lines and point fingers at social problems and not be more active in demending change from their MLA or mayor?

As long as its not in their back yard is my guess :)

beelzebub

Aug 1, 2010 at 2:47pm

C. is only repeating a mantra that coincides with a good portion of society today, in that nothing is our fault. Somebody else is to blame for the outcome, no matter what small part they may have inadvertently played. It is reflected in the courts when the examination is not upon the evidence but the investigations. Have to make sure that the cops did not take more than 5 minutes to read the breath demand after figuring out you were drunk at the wheel, or else it is thrown out. Such nonsense abounds in the courts these days.

I find it rather ironic that when interviewed, some of the relatives of the missing persons had not had contact with their kin for years. Now you are concerned? I agree with flipside on that one.

You reap what you sow as the old saying goes.

seth

Aug 1, 2010 at 8:26pm

Profiling expert Kim Kim Rossmo pretty well had the whole thing solved at murder 25 or so in 1999.

But the VPD didn't like Kim, he wasn't their kind - a thug and a bully. The are so they shut him down and sent him on his way.

Another 25 lives would have been saved if the city police was run by responsible adults instead of puerile children with their petty jealousies.
seth

The punishment fits the crime

Aug 5, 2010 at 2:44pm

What crime in humanity calls for death beyond belief because the choices you make come from a place where you are lost. Even a man can kill his wife and child and not face mutilation and then fed to the pigs. What is going on in society that such monsters come to life as apparently some members of society believe women who make mistakes are best chopped up and fed to the pigs. I thought that was what was done in other cultures but not Canada but that is changing as the babushka hides yet a another face not fit to be seen.

An Investigation is Next

Aug 5, 2010 at 6:13pm

I predict there will be an extensive investigation into the mass murder of women on the DT eastside and the VPD's involvement or lack of it despite residents who believe the women deserved to be chopped up for being mixed up and the only real harm these girls ever had done was to themselves. Unlike the pig farmer who took away their lives in an act more horrible than most can ever dream the VPD are about to be seen for what they really are and no wonder police are a sorry lot.

hey flipside

Aug 5, 2010 at 8:46pm

Am if correct in understanding your logic, If you are the police and you know of murders going down is it not the duty of the officers to report the crime? But your telling me it was the families duty to go after the mass murder instead and not the police when police found out about the murders and the women were more of a problem than the pig farmer who is about to take a province and turn it into a media frenzy of death. I would have to say your more than flipped out!