Police vs. Public

The Toronto Star has recently done an investigation into several SIU investigations involving various police officers and what the outcomes of those investigations were. They have pointed out that in every case they have gone into detail about, it would appear that police officers are treated completely different than regular citizens and in cases where had it been a civilian, charges would have most definitely been laid, yet in cases involving police officers, the officers were more likely to get off without any type of charges laid against him or her, as well as avoiding any police act charges.

Yes, police have a very difficult job to carry out. They are scrutinized at every corner for every decision they make. It is in my opinion one of the most stressful jobs to do, I've done it. With that said, I also think that the police get away with more than they should, most specifically in investigations involving officers who have used force of some type and an individual ends up getting killed or at the very least his ass kicked. I have been involved in these types of investigations in some form or fashion and have unique first hand experience in how things are done.

The system is what it is and relies heavily on evidence. Evidence comes in various forms. Everything from eye witness accounts, video, audio, statements, physical, etc....you get the idea. The reason most officers don't end up getting charged is because in most cases these so called statements of witness and subject officers are often scripted. As such, this evidence and the lack of other evidence, and lets not forget the so called blue wall that everyone hears about, and I can assure you that this does exist, it all affects the system so much so that the officer(s) end up not being charged, or justified in what they did because they themselves, both subject officers and witness officers have had their statements scripted. Therefore the system, taking that evidence to be the truth ends up coming out with the headlines "Officers found not at fault" or something to that effect. In the case I was involved with, I was a witness officer. A youth had stolen a car, gotten into a police chase and struck an elderly gentleman on a bicycle, killing him. I arrived on scene, got into a foot chase with the youth and ended up arresting the youth. Without going into more detail, because a citizen was killed during a police chase it became bigger than I ever imagined. All of a sudden, I was called at the station while processing the youth. Spoke to my union rep, and subsequently advised to call a specific lawyer. I called this lawyer and he basically told me what to write. I was told to write my notes on regular letter size paper and to meet, him and a very high ranking member of the police association at a bar located downtown. Once I arrived the lawyer reviewed my statement, made any changes he felt were necessary and then told me it would be alright for me to then write this into my notebook. Can you see anything wrong with that process? Me too. But this was and still is for the most part the culture of policing. I can honestly say I don't miss it. 

Focusing on topic, the system, I am simply stating that because the evidence against a regular citizen is fairly straight forward and on the level, however, when a policeman finds themselves as the focus of the investigation, the process of collecting and the authenticity of this evidence, is collected by the SIU as best as it can be, the problem is, is that police do get more of an opportunity to shape that evidence into evidence that places themselves in a more favorable light and more often than not is enough to get them off. The system works, its just......shall we say can be  manipulated by those who want to and know how and who are allowed to.