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RCMP should leave municipal policing: Commissioner candidate
RCMP should leave municipal policing: Commissioner candidate
Mike Webster would do some major revamping of the force
Dan Burritt/Georgia Straight Aug 25, 2011 11:43:39 AM
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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - He's blasted the RCMP as broken and unsustainable, but a BC police psychologist now wants to lead the force.
Mike Webster has applied to become the new RCMP commissioner after William Elliott decided to step down to become Interpol's envoy to the UN.
"They [the RCMP] wear far too many hats and wear none of them well," says Webster, who adds he wants to make drastic changes to the national police force. If he were the top cop, he says the RCMP would only enforce federal law and get out of provincial and municipal policing.
He would have Mounties out of uniform and in a union, too. "Trim it down to size, get the public's confidence back again, get the membership's smouldering motivation back again."
That motivation he says is stifled by overtime. "If there's a [union] in place, senior managers are going to have to be accountable to someone. There will be no more running roughshod over the membership."
Webster says he completed basic RCMP training years ago but eventually decided it wasn't for him. He also testified at the Robert Dziekanski inquiry, saying he was embarrassed to be linked to organizations that "taser sick old men in hospital beds and confused immigrants arriving to the country."
In his application, Webster included several articles he's written about the RCMP, including “The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Organizational Psychopathy: Policing in an Ethics-Free Universe.”
Other names mentioned as top picks for RCMP commissioner include former army commander Lieutenant General Andrew Leslie, Ottawa police chief and former RCMP assistant commissioner Vern White, and Canada Border Services Agency president Luc Portelance.
"All of those names are mainstream, more-of-the-same conservative thinkers who have difficulty getting outside the box," says Webster. "That's why I like to think of myself as the sensible alternative."
If he gets the job, he says he wouldn't move to Ottawa, either.
"I think the RCMP needs to be at arm's length from the government," he explains. "Vancouver would be arm's length enough for me. I find the air in Ottawa a bit rarified because it seems to interfere with sensible thin |
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發表於 2011-8-26 07:43
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