On Thursday, the head of the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) responded to growing calls for more civilian oversight of the agency.
ASIRT is investigating three officer-involved shootings across Alberta in the past two weeks alone, two of the shootings occurred in Calgary. Already this year, ASIRT has investigated 25 serious incidents across the province, and that has some questioning whether the agency is impartial enough to properly look into possible wrongdoing by police.
“We are concerned with the truth,” said ASIRT’s executive director Susan Hughson at an Edmonton press conference. “We are concerned with accuracy and we are concerned that everyone gets fair treatment in this province. No one is above the law.”
The Criminal Trial Lawyers Association says ASIRT cleared officers of wrongdoing in 19 out of 21 investigations in the past two years and argues police officers shouldn’t be investigating their own.
“I would say in my experience, they should not have faith in the process because I’ve seen too many instances where the investigation was not done properly,” said Tom Engel.
The family of Anthony Heffernan is also concerned. Heffernan was shot in a Calgary hotel room on March 16th after police say he approached officers with a needle in an agitated state.
“He was taken down with three shots to the head and one to the chest,” said Steven Heffernan, Anthony’s brother. “We want to know why.”
ASIRT’s workload has been increasing over the years. In 2014, the agency investigated 53 cases, up from 21 in 2008.
Hughson says ASIRT has the resources to handle the work.
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