A 2023 Vancouver Police Department report written by a 38-year veteran officer weeks before his retirement suggests report writing processes within the VPD need to be improved.
Global News filed a freedom of information request last September for the June 15, 2023 report by Sgt. Mark Andrews, who retired in August last year.
More than a year later, we received a heavily redacted version of Andrews’ memo titled ‘Improving Report Writing Processes in the Vancouver Police Department.’
Sixteen of the 18 pages were 100 per cent redacted by the VPD, which cited section 13(1) of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which authorizes a public body to withhold information that would reveal advice or recommendations developed by or for a public body.
The second partially redacted page of the report states while the quality of service provided by the members of the VPD generally ranges from good to very high, “the quality of the documentation of the service provided, however, unfortunately, ranges from very poor to fair.”
Global News requested Andrews’ report after learning more than half of the Vancouver Police Department files associated with a 2023 shoplifting crackdown had not resulted in charges months later, because almost half of the files were not sent to Crown counsel for charge assessment.
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
Global News ran the 276 VPD files for Project Barcode through the province’s Court Services Online (CSO) in Aug. 2023 and no charges showed on 56 per cent of them.
The BC Prosecution Service (BCPS) said that was because it only received 143 of the 276 VPD files.
Of the 143 files the BCPS said it did receive, 83 per cent resulted in charges.
Reports to Crown Counsel (RCCs) were not completed on 33 other files for various reasons including departmental discretion, insufficient evidence and/or uncooperative victims or witnesses, the VPD said in September 2023.
As for the 100 outstanding files, Vancouver police Sgt. Steve Addison said “the remaining files were investigations that did not result in evidence that warranted Reports to Crown counsel.”
In his report, Andrews notes “poor documentation hinders investigations and successful prosecutions while making it difficult to identify crime trends or active offenders.”
“It tells me that report writing is an institutional issue at the VPD,” said former Crown prosecutor Rob Dhanu.
Dhanu, now a partner with Dhanu Dhaliwal Law Group, said the Crown needs full police notes to back up any file and Andrews’ report suggests there may not be enough resources or oversight to see prosecutions through.
“If you make an arrest and you don’t take proper police notes, it’s like spiking the football before you get to the end zone,” Dhanu told Global News. “It’s completely futile.”
Kash Heed, a former West Vancouver police chief and former B.C. solicitor general, said proper report writing is critical for charge approval.
“If you don’t articulate the evidence of your investigation, the Crown cannot go forward on a prosecution,” said Heed.
“It’s extremely problematic,” added Dhanu. “These officers are actually going out there and trying to do their jobs, so they’ve arrested all of these individuals, and they’ve brought their files back to the head office. Now if you don’t have the proper followthrough, then it’s all a veneer of arrests but with no substance.”
Although the first partially redacted page of Andrews’ report states the assignment was “to provide information and recommendations to improve the current Operational, Investigative and Administrative processes employed by the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) concerning report writing and the Records Management System (RMS),” the VPD said the report was unsolicited and completed by a sergeant on his own volition prior to his retirement.
“We value the experience and opinions of every VPD member, and we appreciate the effort this sergeant made to pass on his thoughts before he retired,” Sgt. Steve Addison said in an email.
Addison said the report, which was addressed to Chief Const. Adam Palmer, was forwarded to the VPD’s Training and Recruiting Section for review.
Some aspects he said, have been incorporated into the field trainer program which guides the training and development of new officers when they first deploy as patrol constables.
Vancouver police officers respond to an average of more than 4,500 calls for service each week, said the VPD, resulting in hundreds of police reports every day.
Those reports, said Addison, are reviewed by supervising sergeants to ensure all necessary investigative steps have been considered.
He added there are numerous checks and balances in place to ensure police investigations are complete and thoroughly documented, “so that offenders are held accountable when crimes occur.”