TRANSPARENCY & ACCOUNTABILITY IN POLICE SHOOTINGS REQUIRED

Today's Editorial in the Waterloo Region Record is right on the money. It's title is "Police shot Beau Baker; tell us all". Beau Baker was in crisis and desperately needed help. He did not need help at the business end of a gun courtesy of those paid to protect all of us. Whether there is a better way of disarming and de-escalating situations like his despertaely need to be found and exercised.

The full Special Investigations reportas well as the police review have been kept from the public. This is unacceptable. Quoting the Record "Yet when a public servant- and a police officer is one - kills a citizen, the public should know that person's name. That's a basic level of transparency people have a right to expect.".

The death's of citizens in crisis by our police officers who are supposed to be there to protect us can not continue. Better ways are needed to preserve everyone's lives including those with mental illnesses, those assigned to protect us and even those who have committed crimes. Refusing to follow a police order should not be grounds for murder. Only in the most dire cases where an officer is trapped literally with his back to a wall or when under attack in close quarters should an officer respond with lethal force. Tasers or pepper spray may have to follow failed negotiations or de-escalation techniques but guns should not be the first recourse when dealing with distraught, upset individuals.