Police Officers were accused of “disgusting, horrific” behavior when they took “extreme measures” to prove they were not police officers.
According to Global News and CT, members of law enforcement agencies in British Columbia, Canada, infiltrated a colleague with vegetables, defecated on another and bared their genitals.
Police experts in the country are now calling for an immediate review of undercover tactics.
The BC’s secret municipal program was halted after a master class in May that left several participants so concerned about the incident that they reported it to their superiors, and nine officers were reportedly under investigation.
Mike Farnworth, the Attorney General of British Columbia, described the allegations as “disgusting” and “horrible”, and provincial authorities said an independent investigation would now be launched.
(Image: Kimberly Reimer)
“If these allegations are true, then obviously some of these officers thought things were obviously inappropriate,” said Kent Roach, a law professor at the University of Toronto and author.
Roach also expressed concern about the liberal use of deceptive and even violent tactics that Canadian police are allowed to use in covert operations.
In recent years, criticism has focused on Canada’s frequent use of tactics known as the “Mr. Great” technique, which is used when police suspect a person has committed a serious crime but cannot prove it due to lack of evidence.
(Image: The Wharf)
The technique involves recruiting a suspect into a fake criminal organization, in which they are encouraged to take risky and sometimes illegal actions to “prove” their worth of joining.
The ultimate goal of the exercises is to get them to meet the “boss” of the gang and admit to the worst they’ve ever done.
This tactic has been banned in many other countries, but has been used in hundreds of Canadian police investigations since its development in the early 1990s.
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