Justice Minister Shirley Bond says the new Independent Investigations Office to oversee police agencies in B.C. will be up and running by Sept. 10.
Bond says the IIO will be civilian-led and will investigate incidents of death or serious harm involving police officers.
“Certainly from my perspective, I think it will change the way that investigations are done in British Columbia and it’s one of the things that I hope will help increase and enhance peoples’ confidence in policing in the province.”
Former American prosecutor Richard Rosenthal will head the office, which will have 60 staff members when it’s fully operational.
The office was created as a result of inquiries into the police-involved deaths of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at YVR and Aboriginal homeless man Frank Paul in Vancouver.
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