There is a problem in Canadian policing with cops who lie. For many, the recent verdict in the trial of Umar Zameer is a powerful reminder of the dangers this poses.
Zameer, a Toronto accountant, was recently found not guilty in the death of Det.-Const. Jeffrey Northrup. The judge in Zameer’s case suggested that the police who testified at trial may have colluded to shape a version of events that painted Zameer as a murderer.
Nader Hasan, one of Zameer’s lawyers, has gone even further, alleging that three police officers who testified at trial committed perjury.
Witness officers testified that Northrup was standing in front of Zameer’s car with his hands raised before he was run over. However, these statements were contradicted by two expert witnesses and by video evidence. If experienced officers are potentially willing to commit perjury in the face of clear contradictory evidence, what are police willing to do when the facts aren’t as clear?
The OPP will conduct an ‘independent probe’ into whether the officers in the Zameer case engaged in collusion and perjury. If this is found to be the case, the officers won’t be alone. Across Canada, there are dozens of recent cases where officers lied in court.
Lying is a form of police misconduct rooted in the occupational subculture of policing. Sometimes, those lies are relatively minor embellishments; sometimes, they are the type of lies that can condemn a person to jail or prison.
Attorneys have been sounding the alarm about dishonest cops for years, but we still don’t know as much about these practices as we should and we probably never will. The police subculture is characterized by a cloak of secrecy — the “blue wall of silence.” Behind this wall of silence, officers who engage in misconduct are often protected from scrutiny and accountability.Â
Studies of the police suggest that officers are socialized into certain forms of misconduct, such as dishonesty and the importance of secrecy as essential aspects of the police subculture.
These studies have found that police will engage in dishonesty to secure what they believe to be a “good outcome” such as “getting a bad guy off the street,” so-called “noble cause” corruption.Â
To understand noble cause corruption, we need to consider the police world view. The police find themselves between two roles: state agents bound by the rule of law and protectors of the public.
Research suggests that police often feel their role as state agents is fundamentally incompatible with their role as protectors of the public because the law sometimes gets in the way of doing what’s “right.” In essence, the ends justify the means.
In criminal investigations, we must also consider the problem of police tunnel vision. Tunnel vision occurs when investigators prematurely and selectively build a case around one suspect while simultaneously ignoring or even suppressing contradictory evidence.
Once the police have narrowed in on their preferred suspect, noble cause corruption can lead investigators to dubious tactics to support their preferred version of events.Â
Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw’s decision to have the OPP investigate the Zameer case is intended to promote public confidence and trust in the police oversight process. However, regardless of the outcome of this investigation, many members of the public will simply see this as the police investigating the police.
There is a widening trust gap between the police and a growing number of Canadians, and the suggestion that officers in the Zameer case engaged in serious misconduct could have profound and long-lasting repercussions for the police.
If the police truly intend to engender trust and restore public confidence in policing, they must commit to an independent, non-police investigation. And this investigation can’t stop at the officers in the Zameer case. Police misconduct is a systemic issue and not simply a case of “bad apples.”
A long-term plan to address misconduct must involve data collection, careful recruitment, training, supervision and rigorous external accountability measures. Critically, restoring trust in policing also requires the difficult task of culture change, a process which must begin with a commitment from police leaders.
