Vancouver Police still have not laid any charges in the Stanley Cup riots investigation, and it could be months still before anyone is charged.
Chief Jim Chu addressed the media Wednesday morning, defending the speed of the investigation and saying police want to make sure they get it right.
“We’ll go when we’re ready, not when the suspect is ready,” said Chu. “We want to make sure that we don’t have bad case law, and that we don’t have acquittals.”
He also said he is “just as frustrated as the general public.”
Police say 268 suspects have been identified, and photos of a further 150 unidentified suspects will soon be released to the public in hopes of identifying them.
Chu also said police want to make sure that people are not turning themselves in for a relatively minor offence when they may have done something more serious.
Police also said comparisons with the speed of charges in the U.K. riots are unfair, because police there can lay charges in less than 24 hours. In B.C., there is a lengthy charge approval process.
Over 1,000 charges have already been laid in the U.K., including people who were charged for inciting the riot on Facebook, but not participating themselves.
CCTV cameras are also widely used in the U.K., while efforts to install similar surveillance in Canada have been controversial.
Officers are pouring over 1,600 hours of video in order to identify the suspects.
Chu said that in hindsight, he wishes they had more police on the streets the night of the riot. However, police still will not say how many officers were out that night.
Twitter: @PMeisznerGlobal
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