I believe all media should be informed of all events that occur within the police reports, not just what police feel like releasing. This is contrary to the Police Services Act which allows the chiefs of police to decide what to release and what to withhold.
The reason I see a need for this is because a small-town police force in North Bay, Ontario, which I refer to as the 'Dukes Of Hazzard Police Force' as they have time and time again have proven their incompetence.
One day I came home from an appointment with plans on getting back into Security, and on my way home I found a police presence at my residence where I rented a room, I was arrested and accused of downloading child pornography which I explained that my 69-year-old landlady didn’t download any illegal material and neither did I, but they insisted one or both of us did since no one else resided in this location.
I said I believe the WiFi was hacked, but they didn’t care.
So instead of two people being charged, I said I did it.
I read about the black website stuff online and so I gave them what they wanted, someone to charge. They took all day to take computers and a cell phone. The Sergeant who arrested me had no probable cause at the time and had to admit to this later.
In court, the police lied and were caught by my lawyer in their lie. 10 month’s later after the Sudbury Cybercrime unit who checked all hard drives and the phone did not find a single illegal shred of evidence, so The Dukes of Hazzard Police Force had to withdraw their charges of child pornography, but they did not have to release those facts, they got away with destroying my reputation which went though almost all the newspaper chains in Canada.
I don’t know how many radio and tv stations broadcast those charges but I’m sure as hell aware of the ones that didn’t report the charges being dropped.
I contacted newspapers both online and in print to remove or update the fact that my charges were dropped. They looked into the court outcome and did change the online articles to reflect the current situation.
I have had no police record in over 50 years. I think this is a disgraceful police force that should be disbanded but that is another matter. No media should be able to just report one side of any story, that's just biased and wrong. The media in Canada should be nonbiased with complete news.
Having been in radio broadcasting as a radio personality, I often wondered about the outcomes of charges announced on the newscast but never heard the end result of any charges that were broadcast except in murder cases. I can also tell you about another story close to home in 1989 a man who owned a computer shop that he sold to me and still worked for me as a salesman, had sold a computer to his brother who lived in Ottawa while we lived in North Bay. On the way back he fell asleep at the wheel of his car and veered into oncoming traffic and hit a van head-on and he bled to death on the way to the hospital.
The O.P.P released the incident to the local media which announced it as they were told. They found a case of beer in the back seat, however it was not known if alcohol was a factor.
The news department at the radio station was not advised of the coroner's report that indicated no alcohol was consumed and it was believed that a medication he was on for anxiety, was the cause of his drowsiness that caused the crash. Sadly this man's reputation was tainted by the report that was never changed. So the people of North Bay just assumed he was drinking and driving.
I contacted the news department but they didn’t want to change anything they reported as they trusted the police. That's why I believe change is well overdue. If the media is not going to follow up on police reports then they should not report charges unless those charges have been proven in a court of law.
I was a taxpayer but, I can’t find a job anywhere as a result of the charges laid and reported. I’m sure not everyone charged today is guilty but people do not see it that way when they only get one side of the story. If I, as a reporter, took only the side of the unions and not the management side as well, people would only believe what they have been told.
In college, I was told as a broadcast journalism student in 1987 to get all sides of the story, but I don’t see this, when people announce charges and then do not follow up on those charges, this should not be the case. How is it that we have let police dictate what they tell us? Not a single police force has offered any of their encrypted radios to any media outlet, so no one knows what's going on at any time.
The Nova Scotia shooter got away with killing lots of people because no media sources were informed by police and so no one had a clue what was going on, so the public was not warned about a shooter in the area. The lack of transparency is what killed most people. Yet people in Canada complain about China not being transparent!
One final note, the Chiefs of Police keep giving awards to corrupt police forces and the public knows it! It looks good on them. Criminals supporting Criminals!
I look forward to opening up a new Police Investigations Unit Soon! This will be coast to coast and no bribes will be accepted and if any Police Force is found guilty they will be charged with criminal charges, not civil charges. So Police forces like the R.C.M.P would have been charged with sexual offences and all officers would have been fired, arrested, and charged with the sexual offences and put on the sexual offenders registry, not given a demotion or chance to retire so they could go and sit in their boats at their cottages, or be re-promoted in one year after admitting guilt at taxpayers expense.
Sincerely,
The Very Transparent Lawrence Bishop
