Alex Reid

Apparently, I made the front page of the Metro (in Winnipeg) with my cop complaint from 2004.

From www.weeklies.ca :

LERA’s long and winding road
By James Turner, Staff Reporter

It could be a long road ahead for 24 cyclists who recently filed complaints with the Law Enforcement Review Agency (LERA) against 29 Winnipeg police officers, according to one Winnipegger currently enmeshed in the process.

LERA received the deluge of complaints as a result of police actions during the May 26 Critical Mass downtown cyclist rally.

These complaints come on top of seven complaints filed as a result of a May 3 cyclist protest against the Charging Bison military operation.

Critical Mass is a leaderless movement striving to raise the profile of cycling as a viable transportation alternative in major cities around the world.

But West Broadway resident Alex Reid, who filed a complaint with LERA against a member of the WPS in July 2004, says the local cyclists who have filed complaints may be in for more than they’ve bargained for.

To date he still has yet to see much movement on his case, which he says has left him frustrated.

It’s really misleading what LERA does says Reid.

He says his experience with the agency has left him with the impression that it is set up as little more than a bureaucratic obstacle that filters complaints into rigid categories to minimize the impact of those complaints.

Reid says his original complaint stemmed from an incident in which he was harassed and fined after making an off-hand comment while passing police.

As a result, he filed seven grievances against a single police officer and those grievances eventually boiled down by LERA into a single allegation of “rude or oppressive behaviour” demonstrated by the officer in question.

He says it took 10 months to simply hear back from LERA, and it wasn’t until January that he was advised his complaint had merit and would receive a hearing.

Reid says by this point, he holds little hope that his complaint will ever see any kind of satisfactory conclusion, and that the Critical Mass complainants will likely not fare much better.

“Good luck to them. It should be a long road,” says Reid. “Even if they do get to the top of the mountain, there’s nothing there.”

George Wright, LERA’s commissioner says that while he couldn’t comment on specific cases, the review agency addresses complaints at the speed that they get addressed and that all actions of the agency are governed by The Law Enforcement Review Act (TLERA).

David Sanders, a Winnipeg lawyer who is helping the Critical Mass cyclists submit their complaints to LERA (but is not representing them) called those filing complaints with the review agency brave, but couldn’t comment on how long he expected the process to take or whether he felt people would see the process through to the end.

He says at least the cyclists will be going into the process armed with what they say is video and photographic evidence of abuse of authority by police attempting to put an end to the protest ride.

“How long it takes, I don’t know,” says Sanders. “Each person has to make their own decisions. They felt strongly enough at least to pursue it this far.” Sanders says he’s very concerned about the potential for backlash or intimidation by police against the complainants.

I’ve heard reports of people being followed by police cars,” says Sanders, adding he’s looking for someone in a high-level position in the police to crack down on such behaviour.

“It could take some doing to get through to the troops,” he says.

The times are a’changing, and the Winnipeg police ought to get their act together. And the Mayor should note this as one of the reasons so many young people leave the city. Who wants to live in a city where simply being on a bicycle earns harassment?