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The Vancouver Police Department (VPD)
has changed its breach arrest policy, property seizure policy,
notebook policy and other policies as a result of Pivot’s
compound police complaint, filed in 2003. Photo: Pivot Legal
Society.
Concerns around law enforcement practices
in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside have been a focus of Pivot’s
efforts since volunteer lawyers began meeting with local residents
shortly after Pivot was founded in 2000.
Since that time, Pivot has been at the leading
edge of legal efforts to hold police accountable for misconduct
through complaints, lawsuits, education and policy recommendations.
Pivot's objectives
To improve the quality and value of policing
for low-income and marginalized persons.
Pivot’s policing achievements:
The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) has changed
its breach arrest policy, property seizure policy, notebook
policy and other policies as a result of Pivot’s compound
police complaint, filed in 2003 [To
Serve and Protect].
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Pivot's policing achievements continued:
"Breach" policy
Some of the most significant changes are to
the VPD "breach" policy, which governs the practice
of arresting and relocating people to other locations without
charges.
The new policy corrects specifically several
errors in existing practices, setting out, for example, that
"Vehement emotional verbal expression of disagreement
with police does not constitute a breach of the peace."
It also forbids transporting people to isolated
locations or other municipalities, and requires officers to
comply with their "duty of care" by considering
vulnerabilities, such as suitability of clothing and mental
state, before "breaching" people.
Seizure of property and keeping of police
notebooks
Two other changes to VPD policies touch on seizure
of property and keeping of police notebooks.
The RCMP, in their investigation of the Pivot
complaints, found that VPD officers were not documenting seized property
correctly and also found the quality of notebook records
kept by VPD officers were substandard.
The new policies set strict guidelines governing
police documentation of property seized and interactions with
the public.
Continued...
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