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24 economist sunsimtribune the state of public safety saturday april 30 2005 yorks chiefs bruce crawford 7186 donald hillock 8692 bryan cousiheau 9297 peter scott 9798 julian fantino 982000 robert middaugh 200003 v armand la barge 2003- lessons learned i audits impact still felt today yorks missing person investigation chastised by patrick mangion staff writer you have to learn to walk before you can run that encapsulates how york regions police force endured growin pains since its birth in 1971 it wasnt until the mid1980s that spe cialized units such as homicide an emergency response team intelligence forensics and a holdup squad devel oped before special squads were devel oped yorks detectives would work on everything from auto theft to homicide specializing in the way big city departments had was not part of yorks makeup at time the vulernability of york regions police force was highlighted in 1996 dur ing former quebec judge fred kaufmans inquiry into the wrongful conviction of guy paul morin a queensville resident calling the forces investigation into the 1984 disappearance of christine jes- sop flawed mr kaufman said york police failed on a number of levels he found that the case was so poorly organized it never allowed investigators to see the larger picture this resulted in missed opportuni ties an inadequate investigation at times of potentially significant leads and a failure to document important information mr kaufman said at the time supt randy home who had been a cop for six years when the jessop case broke said lessons were learned from forces failings during the case although scathing in its criticism the findings from the kaufman commission helped raise professional standards supt home said guy paul morin york investiga tion contributed to queensville mans wrongful conviction in the past we put together the best resources we could officers did the best they could with what they knew supt home said having a consistent service across the region has always been our goal chief armand la barge a staff inspec tor in the mid80s said fallout from the jessop case raised public expectations the public wanted a sense of satis faction that this police service was capa ble of handling any type of incident it faced chief la barge said we were seen as a major police serv ice were one of the largest in ontario and as a result we were expected to have that level of sophistication as opposed to going to the ope while mr kaufman criticized the forces actions of 1984 when he filed his 1400page report in 1996 he was satis fied a similar scenario likely wouldnt have be duplicated under yorks more modernized force with flies from rick vanderlinde violent crimes anomalies chief says from page 3 alarm call instead a chain of events followed that would reshape policing in york region and the publics sense of how safe their residential communities really were as the dreaded officer down call crackled across police radios chief la barge later learned it was his friend and fellow officer who had been shot on a seemingly harmless alarm call at a markham company he recalls a collective angst washing over the small and closeknit force as news broke of the departments first offi cer fatality but despite their impact the crimes were still anomalies chief la barge added while sensational crimes garner headlines they arent always representa tive nor a reflective of the state of public safety in york region he said were not blaming the media the reality is that weve put information out the media pick up on on an arrest or homicide but some people take that to mean that its less safe in society than it was in years past he said from page 3 complained of by the police union and its tenacious bulldog of a leader paul bai ley that audit which has helped the force rise above the cousirieau years found the department was under staffed underfunded and underequipped three provincial auditors said the police force for canadas fastest growing municipality was so poorly equipped it was lacking in every investigative unit including homicide rob bery surveillance and child abuse the auditors were quick to point out the shortcom ings were not a reflection of the officers rather it is a result of insufficient resources it was questionable lead ership by mr cousineau combined with a frugal police board and regional council led by former chair person eldred king that allowed the force to fall behind the times the eyeopening provin cial audit made 65 recom mendations aimed at mod ernizing the force in several areas including manage ment perhaps the most posi tive outcome to the cousineau era was how seri ously the police services board and new interim chief peter scott took the auditors recommendations especially since there was no legally binding reason for them to do anything the force had ignored provincial audits before in 1993 york regions police services board shelved an auditors report recommending several changes in the forces com munication branch the bottom line they thought it was too expen sive but it was a different story by 1997 lessons have been learned from an acrimonious period that still stings the memories of some at the time police servic es board member bob cal low said the same provincial auditors who found defi ciencies in the force applauded the boards quick reaction they say its one of the best examples of the task of implementation that theyve seen mr callow said when chief julian fanti no took over in june 1998 the audit had become the backbone of the forces new motto the benchmark of excellence today chief armand la barge and his senior officers are guided by longterm strategic plans that were lacking before the audits recommendations for the force and york regions residents lessons have been learned from an acrimonious period that still stings the memories of some the state of public safety april 28 where we are staff writer martin derbyshire examined the realities and perceptions of public safety in york region in 2005 discovering while crime rates are relatively stable violent crimes and weapons are taking their toll on the public psyche link wwwyorkregioncomyrnewscentrespeciaifea- turepublicsafetystory2744671p3176984chtml today where we were staff writer pat mangion looks back about 20 years focusing on 1984 the year york region lost its innocence with the murders of nine-year- old christine jessop and two york regional police officers as well editor rick vanderlinde looks at the impact of a provincial audit that led to the downfall of former chief bryan cousineau next thursday where were going mr derbyshire finishes the series with a prediction of public safety in thefuture looking at community policing technology and the type of crime that may become more prevalent visityorkregioncom click on the state of york region icon to read online