Police would have had “a good chance” of solving the Robert Pickton serial murder case by the end of 1999 with sufficient resources, former Vancouver police detective Kim Rossmo told the B.C. missing women inquiry today (January 25).

“In my opinion, based on what I know, I think there was a good chance it could have been solved by the end of 1999, if the appropriate resources were deployed, and the Vancouver Police Department was properly engaged in this and had accepted the serial killer theory—if we had taken it more seriously,” Rossmo told the commission, in response to cross-examination from Cameron Ward, counsel for 25 families of murdered women.

Rossmo added that he didn’t want to give “overemphasis” to his estimate that the case could have been solved by 1999, but that it could have been solved “much sooner”.

“I think this case should have been solved one to two years earlier than it was,” he said.

Pickton, who has been convicted in the second-degree murders of six women, was arrested in 2002. He claimed to have killed a total of 49 women.

Rossmo testified that a "strategic blueprint" that was drawn up prior to the meeting of a working group in September 1998 should have been followed.

“I think the community should have been warned,” he said. “I think many more resources should have been put into play earlier.”

Rossmo’s comments followed his criticism Tuesday (January 24) of Vancouver Police Department Insp. Fred Biddlecombe, who he described as having a “small temper tantrum” at the idea of sending out a news release alerting the community to the possibility of a serial killer.

The former detective and geographic profiler for the Vancouver police suggested that some kind of formal process should be established to allow for group input across police ranks during similar investigations.

"It would have to be formalized and thought would have to be given to how to prevent groupthink and to prevent the command structure from dominating," said Rossmo.

"The investigative opinions should be based on evidence, information, knowledge and experience, not just by the number of stars and stripes on someone's uniform."

Earlier in the day, Ward protested a request by David Neave, a lawyer representing Insp. Biddlecombe, that Rossmo return for further cross-examination.

“Another lawyer has shown up representing police interests,” said Ward. “By my count, that’s the 19th lawyer in this room representing police interests.”

“You, Mr. Commissioner, called for applications for participant status in 2010, and heard those applications I believe in December of that year,” he continued. “My clients object strenuously to all of these lawyers showing up at this late date with no reasonable excuse for not having applied for participant status back in 2010.”

Ward also questioned Rossmo as to whether more resources would have been allocated to the Pickton investigation if the victims had been from the west side of Vancouver.

“Your opinion is that if the women who went missing and were subsequently determined to have been murdered by Willie Pickton had been from Vancouver’s west side, the case would have been handled differently, correct?”

“Yes,” Rossmo responded.

“What I believed was an early opinion was formed, that opinion was not changed by developing evidence and facts, and there was a disengagement for a number of reasons, including lack of political and media pressure on some elements of VPD management, that prevented the proper response to this problem,” he added.

Rossmo is scheduled to continue testifying Thursday (January 26). The former Vancouver police detective, who has a PhD in criminology, is now a professor at Texas State University.