Robert Dziekanski: RCMP drops discipline against officers
Each officer received a formal notice of poor performance, but CBC News has learned they were later withdrawn
The four officers involved in Robert Dziekanski’s death may have helped create the narrative of their "less-than-forthright" conduct, as Inquiry Commissioner Thomas Braidwood put it.
But Staff Sgt. Mike Ingles counters that the inquiry was a hostile environment and the officers mistakenly believed they could get through it by insisting they tried to do the right thing according to their training.
"Did they act consistently with what they were trained to do?", Ingles asks rhetorically. "The answer by and large is, yes they did. With perfection? No I don't think there's ever been an intervention that the police have been involved in, that has gone off with perfection but I think the end outcome of that was they responded consistently with their training."
In any event, it's moot because training for the use of Taser has changed, and the officers were never charged in connection with their actions.
For all the RCMP hand wringing that the public should not rush to judgment when Dziekanski died, the force itself has contributed a great deal to the public impression the officers are tainted.
Former Commissioner Bill Elliot declared the officers "fell short" of their duties. Internally however the force has dispensed no discipline. Initially each officer received a formal notice of poor performance known as a 1004.
But CBC News has learned those 1004's were withdrawn from the members' personnel files.
In July 2012 when BC's Deputy Commissioner Craig Callens accepted former Cpl. Monty Robinson's resignation, Callens said he would have preferred to fire the "disgraced" officer.
However Callens approved Robinson's exit in the form of a medical discharge. And last March, Robinson received his police badge encased in plastic. The retirement gift is a gesture by RCMP management that can be denied if an officer has besmirched the force.