The chief of the Vancouver Police Department (VPD), who is retiring at the end of this month, says B.C.’s police oversight process takes far too long and needs to change.
Chief Const. Adam Palmer took command of the force in May 2015, three months before the deadly confrontation between Myles Gray and several VPD officers.
The actions of those officers have been scrutinized by the Independent Investigations Office (IIO), the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC), and a coroner’s inquest – while a public hearing is still scheduled for early next year.
In a one-on-one interview with Global News earlier this month, Palmer said he never expected the Police Act process would still be underway nearly a decade later.
“That shows you in my mind, a failure in the system,” said the outgoing chief.
Gray, 33, was unarmed and experiencing a mental health crisis on August 13, 2015, when Vancouver police responded to a 911 call about an agitated man who had sprayed a woman with a garden hose.
Gray died following a beating involving seven VPD officers who were trying to arrest him that left him with injuries including a fractured eye socket, nose and rib, a crushed voice box and ruptured testicles.
The IIO, the province’s civilian police watchdog, investigated possible criminal conduct and opened the door for charges against four officers.
In 2020, the Crown declined to approve charges, citing a lack of evidence that a crime had been committed and no witnesses beyond the officers involved.
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A coroner’s inquest, which makes no finding of legal responsibility, classified Gray’s death as a homicide in 2023.
In October 2024, a Police Act probe dismissed all allegations of misconduct.
“Out of all those processes, there has been no criminality or culpability on behalf of any officers in the Vancouver Police Department,” said Palmer.
In calling a public hearing last December, Police Complaint Commissioner Prabhu Rajan stated, “there has yet to be a transparent process where all relevant evidence can be explored before a decision-maker with authority to make findings about misconduct under the Act.”
When asked if it was acceptable for Gray’s family and the officers involved to wait more than 10 years for a resolution, Palmer said it’s way too long, and he would have loved to see the oversight process wrap up in two years or less.
“I don’t think it’s acceptable for any family members involved, certainly for the police officers and their families, if you can imagine an average officer may do let’s say 28, 30, 32 years on the job during a career. This is taking up basically a third of their entire career,” Palmer told Global News.
“There has to be oversight by civilian authorities. However, it’s not fair by anybody’s measure that it would take over a decade. You get through murder trials and serial sex offender trials and kidnapping trials way faster than you get through a file like this. In my view, it’s just, it’s not acceptable.”
In finding allegations of abuse of authority and neglect of duty were not substantiated, Police Act Discipline Authority Neil Dubord said the evidence before him was “limited in some ways.”
The now-retired Delta Police Chief Constable noted the Police Act process lacks balance.
“While the respondent officers may challenge findings … the converse is not true; there is nobody there to challenge the officers’ evidence or submissions. It is a strangely lopsided process,” Dubord wrote in his 85-page report.
Palmer also said the OPCC process needs to change in terms of public confidence.
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“I agree with what Chief Dubord said there, they went through that process, the allegations were unsubstantiated,” Palmer said.
“The wear and tear that it’s taken on everybody in this process, the officers and their families, other members of our department that have to go out there every day and do a very challenging job under very difficult circumstances, dealing with dynamic situations that you have to make split-second decisions,” he added.
“A lot of people have these types of files on their minds because they realize that the oversight process just takes way too long. We have to have one, but it should be much more expeditious.”
When asked if he has confidence in the seven officers involved in Gray’s death, Palmer responded: “Yes, absolutely.”
The public hearing before retired judge Elizabeth Arnold-Bailey is set to run for 10 weeks beginning in January 2026.
Gray’s family said it’s the best outcome as there will be a public airing of everything, including potential new evidence.
“It’s tragic whenever somebody dies in the community, and my thoughts do go out to that family 100 per cent,” said Palmer.
“But the facts will come out as they have all along the way. Our officers didn’t do anything untoward in those circumstances.”
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