ROBERT MATAS
Globe and Mail Update
May 20, 2007 at 10:34 PM EDT
Vancouver — Vancouver police acted inappropriately by impersonating a reporter from the newspaper 24 Hours in order to arrest anti-Olympics protester David Cunningham, says the editor-in-chief of the free daily commuter paper.
“We find it unacceptable,” Dean Broughton said Sunday in an interview. “It's inappropriate to use any media in any investigation.”
The news media have a special role in society – to deliver credible news, he said. Impersonating a reporter attacks the credibility of the industry, he said.
“It affects our ability to do our job,” Mr. Broughton said, adding that the newspaper may ask the Police Complaints Commission to look into the incident.
Vancouver Police Department Constable Tim Fanning confirmed Sunday that a police officer lured Mr. Cunningham to a public mall on Saturday afternoon by posing as a 24 Hours reporter.
“It was a ruse to get him out in the open to facilitate a peaceful arrest. That was all there was to it,” he said at a news conference at police headquarters.
But after explaining the reasoning for the impersonation, Constable Fanning backed away from endorsing the tactic.
“If they had asked me before they did it – because I'm up here suffering slings and arrows – I'd say, don't. Find another way,” he told reporters.
Constable Fanning said he spoke to several officers about the ploy. “This is something I have never heard us doing in the past. I have heard of all sorts of other ploys, but never using this one. It may never be used again,” he said.
“It's just because of Mr. Cunningham's background [that police used this ploy]. There was no other way of getting him out, so that's what they used,” Constable Fanning said.
