Damning reports of abuse, mistreatment lend RCMP a perception problem

It is troubling times for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as it fights perception issues on multiple fronts.

With the release of two damning reports and and expression of dissatisfaction from Canada’s prime minster, the RCMP is facing some tough questions about their role as public protectors.

The separate investigations, one into the RCMP’s troubled relationship with aboriginal females in British Columbia and the other on the complaints of mistreatment within the force, highlight in two varying ways its troubled image.

As noted in the latter report, “the simple perception of the existence of systemic poor treatment … has a huge impact on both public confidence and the manner in which the police are regarded."

There is a stretch of time — and it can feel like an eternity — between the moment charges and allegations are made and the time they are found to be true or false.

Those people, in this case organization, are innocent until proven otherwise. We must await all the facts before rendering judgment. At the same time, there is a saying: Where there is smoke there is fire.

[ Related: RCMP has a bullying problem, watchdog says ]

Allegations themselves can force us to question. In the case of the RCMP, they can make the force question itself.

When Human Rights Watch accused the RCMP's B.C. detachment of serious abuses against aboriginal women — highlight by a claim of rape at the hands of several officers — it gave us all pause.

The RCMP promised to take the allegations seriously, promised to investigate. They also pointed out the difficulties of investigating the charges when no names and few details were available. There is the rub.

Allegations remain conjecture until they are investigated and cleared — found to be true of false. When there is smoke there is fire. Usually, the smoke can lead us to a source.

But as the National Post’s Brian Hutchinson points out that few of the allegations are actually new, most of the cases previously reported elsewhere.

[ Related: RCMP accused of abusing women, investigating will be difficult ]

In the accusation of rape, Hutchinson points out that a formal complaint was investigated and deemed unfounded. Officers were reprimanded for breaching search protocol, but no more.

Hutchinson writes:

Strain credulity, maybe. But not break it. The Prime Minister himself has expressed his sympathy. The report is being taken seriously.

Another new report finds that the force has a bullying problem. It should also be taken seriously.

An investigation by the RCMP's public complaints commission looked into 718 internal issues raised between 2005 and 2011. It found that found 90 per cent of those cases involved some form of bullying, while sexual harassment cases were much lower.

"Overwhelmingly the problem was abuse of authority, bullying," commission chairman Ian McPhail told CBC News. "It wasn't sexual in nature, although certainly that's significant."

Issues of mistreatment have been raised inside and out of the force.

What it all adds up to is still to be determined, but perception is a slippery slope.