We get people from the public coming to us with information about believed illegal activities or crime wanting something done immediately. A number of people also tell us that so-and-so is a criminal and should be arrested.
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On social media, I’ll specifically get into that beast in a future article, people will state that so-and-so is a drug user, drug dealer, thief, etc., and that ‘everyone’ knows it. Careful with this last one.
There may be truth to what people believe but it may also be false. Believing something doesn’t make it provable and police officers experience that as well. There are instances where we know a person did commit an offense(s), but we cannot prove it to satisfy a court.
In criminal law, there is a burden of proof that must be satisfied by the Crown Prosecutors and the vast majority of that proof typically comes from police investigations. Remember that police have laws to abide by within every investigation and criminals are not adhering to ‘rules’ while acting outside the law. Investigations must reach a level that there is a likelihood of conviction or the Crown Prosecutors most often don’t pursue the charges in court.
When we get information from the public we are required to take it and through investigation, show it to be credible and provable to be able to back charges in court, all while complying with laws. This becomes the challenge when people tell us their neighbor is a criminal and should be arrested, because, ‘everyone’ knowing this does not satisfy a court.
As I have previously mentioned, the arrest threshold is reasonable and probable grounds that the suspect has, or is about to, commit a criminal offense. But to pass charges through to court, there has to be a likelihood of conviction and most initial information we receive does not meet this.
The easiest way police can meet the requirements for charges to be taken to court is to have provable evidence which can include catching criminals while they commit the offense. Often when there is overwhelming evidence, the accused will have their lawyer try to make a deal with the Crown Prosecutor. There are many reasons for this which I won’t get into here.
The less substantiated the evidence, the more difficult it is for the Crown to prove their case to a judge or jury. This goes back to our investigations and how we can legally gather proof/evidence, that a particular person has commited a specific offense.
In many cases it will take a lot of police work utilizing various investigative tactics to gather enough evidence to be able to meet the high threshold to have the charges carried and then proven in court.
Trials at the Alberta Court are on Wednesdays and Saskatchewan Court holds theirs on Thursdays. I encourage the public to attend to sit and observe this significant part of the Canada judicial system. By attending, people would witness what is required for someone to be found guilty of a criminal offence.
– Staff Sgt. Jerry Nutbown, is the NCO in charge of the Lloydminster RCMP detachment’s General Investigation Section. Stay tuned for future articles from the Lloydminster RCMP.
This column was originally published in the Dec. 26, 2024, edition of the Meridian Source.
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