TERRACE COUNCIL received a short lesson in the criminal justice system May 23, learning there’s a big difference in how the public thinks things work from what actually happens.
The meeting with police, a prosecutor, and a public defender was prompted by public calls wondering what the city was going to do about a recent round of graffiti vandalism.
Councillor James Cordeiro also referred to a story in which police quoted a prolific thief as saying he was going to continue to break into cars.
It seems that police can’t do anything until the person actually is committing a crime, even if he announced his intentions ahead of time, said Cordeiro.
RCMP seem to be picking up the same people all the time, he added.
“To have to put the same band-aid on the same problem seems to be a futile solution,” said Cordeiro.
Terrace RCMP Inspector Dana Hart said that social issues were involved.
“The courts aren’t designed, under our system they’re not designed to deal with that,” said Hart of social issues leading to crime.
“I think a lot of the public also perceives that they can call the police and the [problem] person is thrown in jail and that’s not how the system is designed,” said Hart.
Crown prosecutor Rita Kis quoted statistics indicating more than 75 per cent of criminal cases are reviewed and dealt with seven days after formally being introduced.
Cases are dealt with as efficiently and promptly as they can be, said Kis.
“There’s not a man on the street who would know that,” said councillor Marylin Davies, who chaired the council committee of the whole session in the absence of mayor Dave Pernarowski.
Approximately 82.7 per cent of cases proceed to court after meeting charge approval standards and of those, 63 per cent result in a conviction whether the person pleads guilty or is found guilty after trial, said Kis.
The others don’t result in charges being laid because the standard is not met anymore, or charges are stayed or dealt with by other means or acquitted after trial, she said.
“Our job is to review the reports to crown and decide whether to lay charges,” said Kis.
Decisions on whether to lay charges are made according to a two-part test: whether there’s a substantial likelihood of conviction, a vigorous standard applied to every file and whether it’s in the public interest to prosecute – some are so minor they are not worth proceeding on, she said.
“We make decisions impartially and independently of any political influence. We have to justify them to the RCMP and people higher up the chain,” she said.
Crown’s duty first and foremost is for the trial process to be fair and to present evidence fairly and accurately and to maintain integrity in the justice system, said Kis.
“We’re not there to convict, win or send [the accused] to jail. We are there to be impartial,” she said.
On average in Terrace, 1,000 to 1,200 reports seeking charges are sent to prosecutors here each year, Kis said.