RCMP admit failure in not responding to 911 call
Last Updated Thu, 29 Dec 2005 18:36:35 EST
CBC News

RCMP in Alberta admit they made a mistake when they failed to respond to a 911 call from a woman who was later stabbed to death in her home.

Brenda Moreside, 44, was killed in February in High Prairie, about 300 kilometres northwest of Edmonton. Her common-law husband, Stanley Willier, was arrested and has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.

Ok, it was an absolutely stunning error in judgement not to respond to the call, and I think at least some heads have got to roll for it. However, it does illustrate, clearly, how the police need to deal with such errors. You acknowledge that you made a mistake, and get down to the hard work of taking concrete steps to make sure it never happens again, which is what the RCMP seems to be doing in this case. You do not, as a random example, stonewall, get huffily defensive, refuse to allow any public input into what you're doing, and hunt for reasons to arrest your critics (To be fair, those were sins of prior police administrations; the new guy hasn't done anything to earn public ire yet).