Both the Surrey RCMP and the police oversight agency have released few details of the teen’s death. One expert says failing to provide even basic information erodes public trust in law enforcement
A 15-year-old boy died after a confrontation with Surrey RCMP three blocks from his high school on the weekend, but the director of B.C.’s police oversight agency is defending the decision not to make basic details about the case public, including his age and gender.
“We give a lot of thought to every piece of information we release, and at the time that was not considered to be something that needed to be released,” said Jessica Berglund, chief civilian director of the Independent Investigations Office.
Postmedia asked Berglund if telling the community that the victim was 15 could have better prepared students, parents and teachers at Clayton Heights Secondary who learned about the death on Monday at school.
“I am very understanding and appreciative of those concerns, particularly of parents of school-aged children. Again, we are always trying to balance the release of information with the risk of any prejudice to our investigation,” said Berglund, head of the oversight agency which investigates police incidents that result in death or serious harm.
On Tuesday afternoon, 48 hours after the Surrey boy’s death, the IIO issued a new statement that identified him as a “male youth.” In an interview, Berglund maintained it was not a mistake to have omitted those details in the first place.
“I’m not going to discuss any conversations we may have had with that individual’s family, but it is that delicate balancing act between public interest and privacy rights of the individual’s family,” she said of Tuesday’s decision.
“A decision was made that (releasing the age range and gender) clearly doesn’t impact our investigation.”
A criminology expert said when police decide not to provide basic information with the community, it erodes public trust in law enforcement.
“I am not aware of any legislation that prevents any police service or investigative body from providing fairly routine information … things like how old the individual was,” said Temitope Oriola, a University of Alberta criminology professor and former special adviser on the Alberta government’s 2022 Police Act Review.
“Refusing to do that, I think, is relatively short-sighted because you begin to raise more questions than answers.”
Police routinely provide the ages of people arrested or wanted for crimes, but Berglund said in this case releasing the age wasn’t initially necessary because “there was no identified danger to others or to the broader public.”
Berglund would not provide any further information about the incident, including the time elapsed between the police arriving and shots being fired, specific details about the confrontation between the boy and the officers, the years of experience of the involved officers, or the type of weapon the youth had.
“We don’t want to prematurely release any information which may in any way impact where this investigation is leading us,” she said.
That is apparently when two shots were fired. Four officers, who had been crouching behind a RCMP car parked on the street, then ran toward the area behind the tree.
Rick Parent, a 30-year Delta police officer who did his doctoral theses on police shootings, said it is “problematic” that the IIO has a history of providing few details with the public.
“In today’s times, someone — special interest groups, advocates, and the public — will fill the narrative if the IIO doesn’t provide clear and specific information in a timely manner. In fact, they are mandated to keep members of the general public informed as to what the police are doing,” said Parent, a retired Simon Fraser University associate professor and a court-certified expert in police shootings.
His research suggests the country needs national police oversight to replace the separate provincial bodies.
“The 10 oversight agencies in Canada all tend to do things differently and at times create more issues by the manner in which they report — or fail to report — police conduct,” he said.
Oriola agreed that police and police-oversight agencies in Canada often need to be more transparent.
“Whether it is B.C. or Alberta, the tendency, more often than not, has lead to not sharing basic information that even in the United States would be fairly routine,” he said.
“We’re not doing as good a job as we can in terms of respecting the right of the public to know and therefore bolstering confidence in trusting the police.”
At the scene of the shooting, a memorial has grown and now contains flowers, stuffed animals, condolence cards and cans of Orange Crush.
One of the mourners who stopped at the site said his son was good friends with the boy and they had been in same classes for years.
The man, who only gave his first name as Stephen to protect his son’s identity, said the deceased teen was a good kid, who “wouldn’t even hurt a fly.”
He said the teen was autistic, so he may not have understood what police were saying to him.
With files from Canadian Press