At the end of April, just outside of Toronto, a police pursuit of a robbery suspect ended in a fatal vehicle collision . Four people were killed, including two grandparents and their infant grandchild, as well as the person being pursued by the police. The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) of Ontario, a police oversight agency, has launched an investigation into the police conduct to determine if criminal charges are warranted.
The SIU is staffed by civilian investigators who look into incidents involving the public and Ontario police officers that result in serious injury, the use of a firearm, allegations of sexual assault or death . The SIU determines if police action (or inaction) is criminal and if so, it charges police officers with criminal offences. The SIU plays a vital role in providing oversight of Ontario police officers.
But how effective is the agency in practice? In our recent research paper , we examined all investigations completed by the SIU between 2017 and 2020. During this period, the SIU received 1,245 reports of incidents covered by its mandate. More than 90 per cent of these reports came from police forces directly.
This high rate of police notification reflects the fact that in Ontario, police forces are required to report to the SIU whenever an officer is involved in an incident that falls under the SIU’s mandate. There have been, however, high-profile cases of police forces failing to notify the SIU . Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit Act re.
