Police conscious of Bernardo mistakes during Williams probe

By Janice Tibbetts
Canwest News Service
February 10, 2010


OTTAWA — As police forces across Canada team up to investigate accused killer Col. Russell Williams, they are likely paying heed to the critical mistakes, turf wars and lack of communication that frustrated the Paul Bernardo murder probe in the early 1990s.

"Lessons learned," said Tom Kaye, vice-president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. "That investigation set the benchmark for what can be missed."

The failings of the Bernardo investigation have made police more careful, co-operative, and smarter than they were almost two decades ago about multiple murder probes and alleged crimes that span several jurisdictions, said Kaye, police chief in Owen Sound, Ont.

"Up until that time, we had really never seen anything like Bernardo before," Kaye said. "The changes that have been made since then have been profound in the way that we do business."

In a stinging 2006 report on the botched Bernardo investigation, Justice Archie Campbell concluded that slain teenagers Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy might still be alive, but for the "systemic failure" of police forces and other organizations involved.

Campbell, who conducted a public inquiry into the Bernardo probe, went on to conclude that there was an "astounding and dangerous lack of co-operation between police forces" and a litany of errors, miscalculations and disputes.

The failure to share information prevented police from identifying Bernardo as the terrorizing "Scarborough rapist," whose victims were spread across several police jurisdictions.

Also, videotapes that showed Bernardo torturing and raping his victims were not discovered during a massive search of his home, because a police officer did not reach far enough into the cavity above a bathroom light, where they were hidden.

"Based on the omission that happened, I think you would see people search areas that they wouldn't have 20 years ago," said Kaye, who suggested that "tearing down walls" now would be in order for major murder probes.

Before arresting Williams on Sunday at his Ottawa home, three police services pooled information that led to two charges of first-degree murder and two unrelated sexual assaults.

Kaye speculated the failures in the Bernardo probe are on the minds of officers as they meticulously prepare "with a fine-tooth comb" for the potentially pivotal search in the Williams case.

Bob Runciman, who was Ontario solicitor general when the Campbell report was released, said the province made several technological improvements in police information-sharing following the inquiry that likely helped track down Williams.

One was the creation of a "violent crime linkage analysis system," which is managed by the Ontario Provincial Police and requires forces to submit information about sexual assaults, enabling them to see patterns, said Runciman, who was appointed to the Senate two weeks ago.

There have been other initiatives that enable better information sharing among police forces, among them a major case management system, which requires all significant investigations to be entered into a searchable database shared among police services.

Also, the RCMP oversees a police information portal that can be accessed nationwide.

"I suspect those linkages have helped in this current situation in linking those (alleged) crimes," said Runciman.

But Runciman said improvements can still be made in the protective nature of police forces, which he suspects still suffer from a culture of pride and are reluctant to admit when they need outside assistance in calling in more-experienced help.

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