Poll: Police Honesty Tests?

A suggestion by a poor-people's watchdog group to subject Vancouver city police to random "integrity testing" may have a superficial appeal to those who believe VPD officers are fundamentally dishonest people.

But, the Pivot Legal Society proposal will send a shiver down the spine not only of the police, but of law-abiding British Columbians who believe them to be at least as ethical as other highly trained professionals.

We don't require judges, politicians and other public servants to submit to tests of their honesty. So why would we single out police officers for such invasive treatment?

Proponents of the integrity tests, which involve staging scenarios to catch police in corrupt acts, say they have been effective in New York City, where more than 1,500 are administered annually among the 40,000-strong police force.

"The data produced by these tests provides reliable, empirical evidence of the rate of corruption among NYPD officers," the Pivot report states.

But, as University of B.C. ethics professor Michael McDonald points out, the proposal itself is fraught with ethical problems.

"I can see lots of potential room for misunderstanding, mistakes and even litigation on this one," McDonald told reporter Mike Roberts, who broke this exclusive story in the Sunday Province.