Stan Lowe believes in police — and believes they should meet a high standard.
That’s why, when the former major-crimes prosecutor and criminal-justice spokesman became B.C.’s police complaint commissioner 10 years ago, he raised the bar.
“I began my appointment as an ardent supporter of policing. I remained one throughout my term. And as I leave, I remain an ardent supporter of policing. It’s been my experience, day-in and day-out, that police almost always succeed in upholding the nobility of their profession,” Lowe said in early February, a few days after he retired.
The new commissioner, named in December, is Clayton Pecknold.
At the beginning of his first term as police complaint commissioner, Lowe was almost immediately involved in implementing significant changes to the Police Act. The changes gave him the ability to direct investigations, to ensure that all investigative avenues were being followed and to send matters to three different avenues of adjudicative review.
“It set up one of the strongest oversight systems in Canada, if not North America,” said Lowe.
The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner is a civilian, independent office of the legislature that oversees and monitors complaints and investigations involving municipal police in B.C. It’s responsible for the administration of discipline and proceedings under the Police Act.
Local police chiefs and senior officers who had worked closely with Lowe during his nine years prosecuting murder cases didn’t know what to expect from the new commissioner.
But Lowe didn’t leave them in the dark for long.
“I began setting the standards,” he said. “In the first three months, I called five public hearings. I wanted to send a signal to police that I wanted them to acclimate to the idea of public hearings and having transparency.”
Lowe believes the public hearings set the tone for what he was trying to achieve. Most were held over differences of opinion on whether certain conduct constituted misconduct.
“I was going to raise that bar and I was going to make it perfectly clear where it had been raised. Then I was going to seek to have them meet that bar,” said Lowe.
During the early years of his tenure, discussions between his office and police could be acrimonious. Change comes slowly, particularly for the policing profession, said Lowe.
“I believe reasonable minds can disagree, but at the end of the day, they don’t have to be disagreeable,” said the former commissioner. “I had a consultative approach with police, but I made my own decisions based on evidence.”
Former Victoria police chief Jamie Graham, who found himself caught in the crosshairs of OPCC investigations more than once, said there was a lot of pressure on Lowe.
“You’re betwixt and between in that position. You’re constantly under criticism from one side or the other,” said Graham. “There is always a certain amount of tension and sometimes conflict in the interpretation of what the decisions are. But in general terms, Stan was very fair.”
Lowe brought consistency to decisions made under the complicated Police Act, said Graham.
“A lot of the time, if an officer made a mistake, we could look at precedents and that was very helpful. Stan was good. If we weren’t on the same page, there was still a good explanation, mostly through his senior people,” said Graham.
“We got to trust him. If an issue arose, we could make a call and you knew there wouldn’t be an overreaction. It was valuable to keep them in the loop. I had no problem calling him and saying: ‘We’re looking into something and we’ll notify you when the act requires.’ It worked out well.”
Many things happen in the heat of the moment in policing, said Graham.
“I can recall a couple of quite serious cases, but the officers have since put it behind them and been promoted to senior ranks. They were able to move on and that’s an important part of the process.”
Victoria lawyer Richard Neary represented Tyler Archer, a 19-year-old Claremont grad who played defence for the Junior Shamrocks lacrosse team, during a lengthy public hearing called by Lowe.
A widely seen YouTube video showed Archer being kicked by an officer during a late-night brawl downtown.
“Stan called a public hearing after two Victoria police officers had been cleared by the Victoria police department and by Crown counsel. He appointed the Vancouver police to do an investigation and they sent a package to the Crown, but Crown did not approve an assault charge,” said Neary.
“Stan did not accept this and quite properly called a public hearing. In the end, one officer was found to have used excessive force, which is the only finding that matters at the end of the day. Tyler would not have received justice or the recognition that what happened to him was wrong.”
The police complaint commissioner’s job is very difficult and requires courage, tenacity, patience and sound judgment, said Neary.
“And Stan exhibited all those qualities in spades. He did a difficult job under a bright spotlight with complicated and confusing legislation, strong personalities and varied interests. I think he left the office much better than when he joined it in terms of his accomplishments and the respect of the public.”
Neary also represented a police officer who was being investigated under the Police Act.
“In that role. I felt equally comfortable and felt Stan handled the matter just as fairly,” said Neary.
Saanich Police Chief Bob Downie, who worked with Lowe for years on the Reena Virk case, said Lowe didn’t rely on his relationships with police to try to sway their positions.
“I think he did a really good job achieving that balance. He provided a level of consistency in his decision-making,” said Downie. “Again, you don’t always agree with that decision, but he’s consistent.”
The OPCC has continuously improved its level of transparency and reporting with statistics, annual reports with detailed case files, reports of interest, media releases, notices of public hearings and decisions from judicial reviews, reviews on the record and public hearings.
“Stan and his staff have done a really good job developing the guidelines to interpret the act,” said Downie, who was Saanich’s first professional-standards officer in 1998.
“It’s a tough job and not everyone agrees with his decisions, but he makes them from a principled stance and he applies a consistent lens to when and how things will go to a public hearing.”
Victoria Police Chief Del Manak said he believes in civilian oversight because it ensures public confidence in the actions of police.
“We didn’t necessarily agree on everything. But there was respect for Stan, his office and what he was trying to do. He was acting to ensure there was oversight the public would expect.”
Everything was fully transparent under Lowe, said Manak.
“He took the role to the next level of openness and transparency and made it accountable to the public. I applaud him for doing that because it highlights the best interests of the public and it demonstrates how few complaints are substantiated.”
Police are out in the community every day having hundreds of contacts with people, said the chief.
“Policing is a challenging profession,” said Manak. “People don’t comply. They spit in our face, make vulgar comments. It’s clear our officers demonstrate a tremendous amount of restraint.”
Lowe’s investigations were thorough and fair, said Manak. “He was not just armchair quarterbacking.”
Lowe said he’s proud of the increased use of alternative-dispute resolution for the type of complaint that can be informally resolved between an officer and a member of the public.
“When I started, about seven per cent of cases were dealt with through an alternative dispute resolution. Now, more than 40 per cent are dealt with that way. Very rarely does a complainant complain again and very rarely does an officer find themselves the subject of a complaint,” said Lowe. “It humanizes the experience from both perspectives. It really does repair a relationship, but you’re doing it one relationship at a time.”
Lowe is married to provincial court Judge Christine Lowe and is the father of three adult daughters. He was born in Calgary, but has strong ties to Victoria. His father, Edwin, was born here and worked as a cook at The Empress hotel. During Lowe’s childhood, his family often travelled from Calgary to Vancouver and Victoria.
“I fell in love with both cities,” he said.
Lowe received his law degree from the University of British Columbia and was called to the bar in 1989. When he and Christine had an opportunity to work in the Victoria Crown counsel office, they jumped at it.
“We really enjoyed the smaller town lifestyle,” said Lowe.
As he begins the next chapter of his life, he knows there is still work to be done in civilian oversight.
He would like to see an independent civilian office investigate use-of-force and serious misconduct complaints. Right now, police investigate themselves.
Lawyer Josiah Wood’s 2007 review of the police-complaint process found the quality of investigations was lacking in a significant proportion of serious cases and the outcomes were not supported by the evidence, said Lowe.
“I think even though we’ve made great changes to the system, the same could be said today. Serious misconduct is not being investigated properly by the police, primarily in the use-of-force areas. But the other side of the coin, where there’s criminal conduct, police do an excellent job investigating.”
The most intense case Lowe dealt with during the past 10 years involved former Victoria police chief Frank Elsner sending sexually charged Twitter messages to the wife of a subordinate officer.
“We just had to stay a course. Let matters unfold,” said Lowe. “There were a number of judicial proceedings and applications and we just held our own on those and we got to an outcome which I’m very pleased by. It was an amazing investigation by Vancouver police on that matter. They really demonstrated the nobility in policing.”
Closure came when Lowe issued his summary report on the matter.
“That was it for me. I just moved on to other things. I stand by everything in that report,” said Lowe.
