Ivan Henry & the Vancouver Police

The October 2013 issue (New Series, Vol. 77, No. 3) of The United Church Observer features an interesting article on the case of Ivan Henry.

Wronged by Gary Stephen Ross

 While the focus of this piece is rightly upon the 27 years that Irving spent in prison for crimes he did not commit, as well as, his life beyond incarceration, I think it's important to make an observation about something deeply disturbing about earlier police practice.

The online version of this story does not include a rather telling photograph taken at the time of Irving's arrest in 1982. It shows a police line-up organized by the Vancouver Police Department (VPD). Seven individuals are positioned for possible eyewitness identification. The person who is supposedly Ivan Henry (although he claims he was not even present at this event) is suspect number "12" and is the only one being restrained by three VPD officers.

What is disturbing beyond the absurdity of this as a "fair" line-up is the sense I have that at least three of these so-called suspects in the line-up are more than likely plain-clothes VPD officers themselves. The B.C. Court of Appeal eventually found that this event was "biased and farcical" and factored unfairly in Henry's case. Details of Ivan Henry's 2012 Court of Appeal hearing are available at:

R. v. Henry, 2010 BCCA 462 (CanLII)

Certainly, the VPD has made significant strides toward improving, enhancing, and organizing their approach to police line-ups (and other investigative processes and procedures). It is, however, worthwhile to meditate carefully on the fact that the kinds of short-cuts and cynical methods employed to convict someone like Ivan Henry were clearly in place only a few decades ago. The VPD is no small-scale, backwater police department where one might expect somewhat less than "professional" approaches to policing. It is, in fact, chilling to contemplate that the police could so casually contribute to the wrongful conviction of someone like Henry.

It is always to useful to keep the historical record in our mind's eye when addressing issues of justice.

British Home Office Unveils College of Policing

Earlier this month, the Home Office in the UK announced the creation of a new body that would aim to advance professionalism among the forty-three police services in that country:

College of Policing

The College of Policing was created to provide some concentrated response to the clear need for significant change within policing at the national level. It will include representation from the police service, the Association of Chief Police Officers, and the Superintendents' Association. The College will operate independent from government and legislation is expected to be in place by December 2012.

While not a "rebranding" of the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), the newly created College will certainly inherit some of the key functions performed by the NPIA designed to maintain and sustain a broad range of policing skills. It may be hoped that the College will continue to publish the monthly Digest which is an excellent source of research awareness that serves the international policing community.

Among the formal purposes anticipated for the College are the following:

• protecting the public interest;
• setting and enhancing first-class national standards of professionalism to ensure excellence in operational policing;
• identifying evidence of what works in policing and share best [sic] practice;
• supporting the education and professional development of police officers and staff; and
• enabling and motivating staff and partners to work together to achieve a shared purpose.

Canadian police executives and their political counterparts should be keeping a very close eye on this new development in Great Britain as we evolve toward constructing our own approaches to a "new professionalism" in policing.