We are in a crisis of honesty in this country. No one believes anyone, nobody trusts what they hear, let alone what they read. All of us are now franctically checking the source of the information so that we can judge whether it is real, fake, or somewhere in between. It also takes us twice as long to read the news because we need to fact check every story through another “trusted” source.

I was a long time reader of the NY Times and the New Yorker, but they turned on me. The Times motto of “all the news that is fit to print” is now all the news that they want you to see and as long as it fits the socially progressive and Democratic agenda. The New Yorker is/was famous for its illustrious past and well informed narratives and their prolific and amazing stable of writers; John Updike, Joan Didion, and Malcolm Gladwell to name just a few. The New Yorker always had a “progressive” and liberal attitude, however it seems that now they have officially crossed over the line to becoming advocates and not observers. Recently I watched a documentary on the New Yorker which covered the period of time during the 2nd election of Trump versus Kamala Harris. It was a behind the scenes look, with interviews of the writers and the process in putting together a magazine issue on the election. Their bias for Harris and their abject fear and loathing of Trump was on full display. Even the selection of the cover when Trump won was designed to show their hate of the outcome. There was no pretence of fairness, no attempt to cover the story from all angles, there was only one angle in their view. I also think Trump is a buffoon, but I also appreciate and have long applauded good journalism, this documentary was truly revealing and therefore disappointing.

In the last number of decades in the police universe, there has been a consistent push towards an emphasis on media relations; a need to be seen to be out there, a need to push the “breaking” news out as fast and as efficiently as possible. The police bought into the need to be always appear to be front and centre, and therefore in control. They were not deterred in their rush to judgement, even if sometimes it was to the detriment of the facts. They believed it made them seem forthright, professional and that they were indeed servants of the people. They were only there to serve. It should be said that there is not something inherently wrong in this guiding principle, but part and parcel of such an approach, is that it needs to be accompanied by a high degree of honesty and belief in what was being said. If you were intent on putting out a press release or holding a press conference then one should assume that one needed to come armed with the facts and significant pieces of information that were relevant to the story. And more importantly you needed to be willing to reveal that information.

The police agencies in their sometimes well earned cynicism of the Fifth Estate sometimes felt that it was enough to be just standing there and besides looking to be in control, they would also be in a better position to control any narratives that flowed from it. That they could be somewhat manipulative in creating a positive viewpoint of the police. It should be remembered that these were the decades of the “media managers” and “media consultants” who studied and influenced how a company or an agency should “project” itself to the general public in an effort to control that public image. Over the last number of years what it did do was automatically force viewers or readers to interpret what was being said –to read “between the lines”.

So we are now at a point in time where everyone has caught on. We don’t trust the media, the politicians, the police, the medical establishment, or anyone for that matter who is trying to influence our opinion or make us believe. COVID underlined the problem of blind trust. We are now learning of some of the misinformation surrounding the vaccine and the implications of its use. We were constantly told that it was a time of “crisis”, therefore we were not allowed to question. Recent polls now show that god forbid that if we entered another viral age, most people would not conform or believe the authorities.

Currently, we are told we are in a “tariff war”. However we are not allowed to see the details of the derailed agreement and we are told that there is now a need for an associate membership in the European Union, but no details in either case are provided on how it all works. Both are cases of political and social media press management, where the details are being withheld and one can only walk away with a feeling of distrust.

I am not the first person, nor will I be the last who is concerned about this lack of trust. It has been talked about politically and studied academically for some time. The general policing approach to alleviate this lack of trust, according to many and even to the United Nations is “community policing” and the need “to feel heard”. Many studies and the U.N. emphasize that the diverse communities need to feel “heard, protected, and represented”. That this is the only practical way to build trust. In their view they address distrust as a phenomenon of being displaced, they do not look at the much larger picture. However, if one turns to the psychology behind a lack of trust, the literature actually points to the need for “consistency”, “transparency”, and “competence”. From a psychological perspective distrust is often the result of overpromising, being defensive, and hiding the hard news. In my view this is the heart of the matter and it is not solved by a community policing agenda.

This is not to say that the RCMP, our largest policing agency, has not paid attention to this lack of trust. The RCMP has since 2015 been paying lip service to the need for transparency, integrity and open government. The RCMP actually has a”Transparency and Trust Strategy” and by 2023 began calling itself an “international leader in public safety, transparency, open government practices and embody principles of trust, transparency, integrity, accountability and participation.” Should you need proof of this feel free to go to the website and read the 35 page document . Like most readers, I had no idea that this existed, but apparently the Mounties have been dragged into being more open because of the Federal Government commitment to the Open Government Implementation Plan . It is a difficult read, filled with the usual government bromides, with not much of any substance.

However, the document does clearly show that the “transparency” that they are seeking and have accomplished is about data sharing for academia and other interested parties. It is not about grass roots and operational honesty. By the way, this past eleven years of this policy has resulted in only data releases concerned with “calls for service”, “diversity statistics” and “police intervention options”. In this policy paper which advocates openness it is always followed with the caveat of the overriding need to respect “privacy, security, and confidentiality”.

For anyone who has put a Freedom of Information request forward, or if you ask any journalist or academic as to the state of transparency in the RCMP, they usually answer with a laugh.

So how do we combat this lack of trust, or more specifically how do the police regain that trust which clearly has eroded over the last number of decades. Is there a way out? First, we must start with the old dogma that “trust isn’t owed, it’s earned”.

Data transparency is one thing and for statistical analysis may be of some value, but the transparency needed to restore trust in the policing agencies is much more basic. Until the front line managers can be more open as to the realities of policing, it is only that will eventually restore trust and with it integrity. For instance managers or supervisors need to speak of the staffing and resourcing issues which is being faced every day and affects their ability to police. Did you know that the RCMP is so desperate for bodies that the Commissioner has recently issued a directive to the Depot training staff that they are not to fail more than 10% of the recruits? Did you know that the biggest issue facing that training staff is English as a second language?

Did you know that there are historically about 1700 unsolved homicides in British Columbia alone? Since the formation of IHIT they have generated 350 unsolved homicides. Across Canada there is about 12,000 unsolved cases. Have you ever heard police executives talk about the enormous efforts needed for unsolved cases, or talked about the fact that there are too many to even be managed. Instead the general public is led to believe that no file is untended, that all open files are being actively worked. IHT now wants you to believe that the formation of another team for gang related homicides is the cure. The VPD on their unsolved web site, display 17 cases, do you think that is an accurate number?

Have you ever heard the police talking about their frustrations with Crown, or the ridiculous amount of time it takes to get a case into court and then through the courts? Have you ever heard Ottawa talk about the mind boggling problems with resourcing internet crime and their inability to even make a dent in those types of cases and that they are madly scrambling to fill all these “Federal” positions. Have you heard the final policing costs for the World Cup yet? Have you ever wondered why the RCMP is not investigating the alleged grave sites at residential schools where children were allegedly murdered?

It is about time that a new approach is undertaken by police managers. It is time to speak the truth and no longer hide behind the need for privacy, security reasons, or opaque investigative purposes. I understand the need for managers to “toe the line” but if you can’t or won’t provide sufficient and truthful detail, don’t say anything at all. The only way the public is going to begin to regain trust in the police is if they stop thinking they are being manipulated and that the police are coming to them with straightforward answers. It’s the only way. It’s not by sharing data on diversity. Trust isn’t owed, it’s earned, and they need to be aligning their words with their actions.