Police Oversight - Rollie Woods, Retired Deputy Commissioner BC OPCC

Rollie Woods joins Tom Stamatakis in this episode to talk about Police Oversight in British Columbia.  Rollie is a former Deputy Commissioner at the BC Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPPC).  He has 35 years of policing experience, 10 years experience on the Executive of the Vancouver Police Union (VPU) and as President of the Senior Officer's Association before moving to work in Police Professional Standards at Vancouver Police and ultimately at the OPCC.

Rollie and Tom agree that Police Oversight has an important role to play in ensuring there are professional and accountable police officers working in BC.  Rollie highlights how important open communications with the public, police agencies and police unions were during his tenure at the OPCC.  He also brings light to the different standards of police oversight currently in place here in British Columbia and how confusing to the public it must be.

Tom gets some comments from Rollie about police body cameras and how they might influence future Police Act investigations.  How it assists with confirming what really took place and provides the public with some assurance that proper accountability is being attained.  Body cameras also come with challenges related to cost, storage and personal privacy.

Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC)  https://opcc.bc.ca/

Canadian Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (CACOLE) https://cacole.ca/home-accueil-eng.shtml

Sound editing done by Todd Mason.

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