Even ex-cops can't get answers

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Former Winnipeg homicide officer James Jewell wonders why police won't answer innocuous questions. (SUBMITTED)

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I received an email Saturday morning from former Winnipeg police homicide unit leader James Jewell that included a link to a blog he had just written.

"You might find it interesting," he said.

Jewell's blog post began: "This morning I read an article in the WFP written by Gordon Sinclair seeking answers to 'simple questions' regarding the murdered and missing women's task force known as Project Devote."

Jewell went on to agree they were simple questions and to summarize them: Has the task force, which includes officers from Winnipeg police and the RCMP, been successful in its main mission of identifying any patterns or similarities that suggested a serial killer or killers might be preying on local First Nations females?

How many slayings or suspicious-death cases involving suspected sex-trade workers remain unsolved or how many missing cases remain open?

Were Project Devote members involved in the recent arrest of Shawn Lamb, or was he identified previously by the task force as a person of interest? How many officers are attached full time to Project Devote?

Police didn't respond with answers to any of those questions.

Prompting one from Jewell.

"The question I would ask," the retired homicide detective continued, "is why the need for secrecy for such innocuous questions? If there ever was a time for real transparency, it is right now. The answers to these question could never jeopardize an ongoing investigation."

The public has a right to know, Jewell added. But "most importantly," the victims' families have a right to know.

Then Jewell offered some simple questions of his own that he said police should be obligated to answer.

What are the total number of files of murdered and missing women under review?

What are the stats related to age and racial background of victims? Or the number of solved homicide cases involving female aboriginal victims? Or the number of victims involved in sex trade and the number of victims with addiction issues?

What about victim timelines -- the month, day, time of killings or disappearances?

Or the number of linked incidents, if any.

But Jewell had more than questions of his own to add. He had some answers to my questions.

He wrote that he doubted the original task force's review of cold cases made any substantial links or connections. Actually, that was the impression Police Chief Keith McCaskill left at last week's news conference after Lamb's arrest, but police didn't bother to confirm when I asked. On another question, according to Jewell's sources, Lamb was not identified as a person of interest by the Project Devote team.

Yet, again -- according to what I read in the Free Press after last week's news conference -- before his arrest, Lamb was a person of interest in the disappearance of Tanya Nepinak, who remains missing but whose murder he is now charged with. Apparently, Lamb was also a person of interest in the cases of Carolyn Sinclair and Lorna Blacksmith, whose murders he is also charged with.

Which brings me to another simple question: If Lamb was a person of interest to Winnipeg police, why wouldn't he have been identified as a person of interest by Project Devote?

Where's the communication?

Perhaps the answer is suggested by what Jewell said in response to my question about how many officers are dedicated full time to Project Devote.

"The numbers of investigators varies," Jewell wrote, "and officers cycle in and out of the unit as a result of a number of variables i.e.: promotion, voluntary transfer request, mandatory transfer after term complete."

What that suggests is Project Devote lacks continuity. And perhaps a genuine sense of devotion from RCMP and Winnipeg police leadership.

All of this reminded me of something else a different retired Winnipeg police detective wrote last September in his Free Press column.

Robert Marshall recalled trying to help a victim's family that had been left in the dark. He emailed police and asked if they could confirm their daughter's case was under review by the task force.

"I offered to help," Marshall wrote, "because, having for years been a Winnipeg police homicide sergeant, surely I could get her an answer to that simple question."

Marshall received this response:

"The Winnipeg Police Service is not providing comments on any cases that may be associated to the Missing and Murdered Women's Task Force."

What that suggests is a culture of unwarranted secrecy within the Winnipeg Police Service and the RCMP. But, in my experience, it isn't just about the missing and murdered file.

And clearly, it isn't just aimed at the big, bad news media.

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 3, 2012 B1