Statement from the Chief Constable

Jamie Graham

I would like to respond this morning to today's findings of the public hearing into the circumstances surrounding the death of Jeff Berg.

I want to first thank the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner Dirk Rynfeld and his staff for their efforts. I and every member of this department are very pleased with today's decision. As we have from the beginning, we continue to support Constable David Bruce-Thomas. He has been on active duty throughout and continues on active duty.

The Adjudicator has concluded that Constable Bruce-Thomas did not use excessive force in his arrest of Jeff Berg. While we continue to sympathize with the grief the Berg family has experienced with this loss, we also sympathize greatly with Constable David Bruce-Thomas and the anxiety that he and his family have suffered as a result of years of investigations and the seemingly endless media coverage that parroted every attack on his character and professionalism.

Our members have stood by and watched over the last four years as the critics of the VPD, primarily Julie Berg and her lawyer, have waged a public campaign against the department and Constable Bruce-Thomas. Their campaign has been vitriolic and peppered with half truths and vicious accusations.

If the public is confused about what actually happened that night in a back alley off Slocan Street, it's understandable. Every accusation, every unfounded charge and every lie has been reported in detail over and over again for the past four years.

What makes this particularly frustrating for us is that Julie Berg waged this campaign professing her brother's innocence when all along she knew he was guilty of conducting a series of brutal home invasions including the one he was pulling the night he died.

How did she know? Her brother told her. Jeff Berg told his sister that he was ripping off grow operations run by Vietnamese families. Julie even turned over to the police a map she found in her brother's apartment indicating his intention to attack the home on Slocan Street. You don't have to take our word for it, we have the map she gave Vancouver Police and a tape of the interview she had with our detectives.

Her grief and her anger may be even more understandable as she wrestles with the realization that if only she had come forward when she knew Jeff Berg was involved in home invasions and planning more, this entire tragic incident might have been avoided.

But she never revealed this to the media. She quickly learned instead that the media was easily compliant and willing to print any version of that night's events with little or no acknowledgement of the facts provided by the police.

Many versions of this incident have been reported in the media, including a newspaper editorial that reported the death arose from a "traffic stop". This was not a traffic stop. This was a terrifying, violent and very dangerous break and enter into a dwelling house by at least two armed masked men who were terrorizing a family.

You may also remember that we showed you photos of the mask, replica gun and barbell that were used in the attack. We also posted a photo of a wire cord that Jeff Berg had in his pocket along with a pair of scissors. There is no doubt that he intended to tie the family up with this cord and could well have used the scissors as a weapon against Constable Bruce-Thomas.

In case you missed those photos, we have some of the exhibits that were recovered that night.

That is the serious type of crime our members were responding to that night, not a traffic stop, not a routine call. We believe the citizens of Vancouver have a right to know that.

It makes today's decision even more important for those of us who know what Constable Bruce-Thomas has gone through as a result of the bravery he displayed that night.

I am very respectful of the process we have in place concerning the checks and balances that help preserve the integrity of the police.

Today's decision is further evidence that the system works. But I am very concerned about another system that seems to have absolutely no checks and balances. It was this system that pilloried Constable Bruce-Thomas for the past four years; a system that allows anyone to attack and defame individual police officers in an unsubstantiated manner that would never be allowed against any citizen in a civil action of libel or defamation and a system that feeds off a media that seems always willing to repeat that defamation without any concern for the hurt it causes.

The men and women of the Vancouver Police Department are dedicated to preserving the safety of the citizen's of the city. They put their lives on the line, as Constable Bruce-Thomas did that night, to catch those among us who would do us harm. They deserve better.

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