Rhino's Ramblings - The Informant

By Robert Thomas Opinion/Commentary

It has to be one of the greatest Achilles Heels the Moose Jaw Police Service (MJPS) has and that is its use of and promises made to criminal informants and how their behaviour - often criminal - is protected by the MJPS.

In case anyone does not know who or what a police informant is well they are individuals who are often in trouble with the law and they trade their way often out serious criminal offences by giving up their friends and others.

It is called by most officers in any police force as “making a deal with the devil” in an effort to gain information to solve more crimes other than the crimes they have caught the informant performing.

In the past week I managed to have a chat with one of these people used by the MJPS.

Speaking with a guarantee of anonymity I was able to ask this individual exactly how and what he did for the MJPS.

I will have to admit the person I spoke to is one of the most unsavoury people I have ever spoken to when it comes to this column or any story I have written for MJ Independent. But what he provides is a look into not only the drug world but also the dealings he had with the MJPS. A case of 100 percent true should send shivers down most people’s spines.

It was a case of how do you prove it? How do you prove the “facts” that were being presented to you from someone who might have an axe to grind with the MJPS?

It is simple the informant actually recorded some of his interactions with the MJPS. They are his “insurance” in case anything turned against him. And yes I did recognize at least one officer’s voice on the tape.

Now was he trying to get even? Perhaps. A parting shot as he heads west and is no longer “working” for the MJPS.

The individual I spoke to did so freely admitting that he was involved in the drug trade as a dealer and he “used” the MJPS to go after bigger dealers and competition so that he could ply his trade unmolested. So long as he kept feeding at least one officer within the MJPS information he could go about unmolested.

So why talk to me? Why say anything to anyone let alone the media?

Well it is quite simple. He is not from Moose Jaw.

But he was from a smaller community and now has headed off for Calgary to be with his family and he won’t be returning anytime soon - if at all.

Speaking to me was easy. Since my family came from a smaller neighbouring community it was easy to connect with the guy - through a friend of a friend of a friend.

Now with that said do I believe what he was telling me?

To some extent yes I do. It all fits into a pattern.

I have seen court records before of accused individuals who people claimed were informants and suddenly charges were dismissed, charges were suspended and even people who are let out on bail conditions which were so flimsy given the seriousness of the offense. Then suddenly the offense just disappears.

It is a rotating door of justice where the guilty just need to identify someone bigger than they are. It is like a get out of jail free card in Monopoly but you do not need to turn it back in once you make use of it.

Just keep providing information.

The revolving door of justice does not seem to make it to the court house as many times deals are struck right at the scene of the crime.

In the end it does not teach the criminal anything other than if you can squeal in others you maybe can walk free again and again and again.

This is where things get tricky and the MJPS loses a lot of credibility. You can be a victim of a crime, you can speak to an officer, you can file a police report and nothing will happen. You as a victim are seemingly forgotten in the entire process.

You are never told that the people you reported for doing you harm were even caught in a lot of circumstances as the MJPS is really under no obligation to do so.

I have had people, good honest people, tell me that they filed a criminal complaint with the MJPS against an individual for fraud only to have nothing done about their file.

Then they find out the individual was convicted of other offences and what was done to them was not even dealt with.

Worse yet they never received a response from the MJPS as to what happened with their complaint. Not even the common courtesy of responding in some cases where the complainant has done all of the work for them. As far as Victim Services goes, no call either.

Sadly though they are not the only ones. I have heard from four people now with the same result from filing a police report in four separate incidents.

I asked these victims what they truly think of the MJPS and it is not very nice. In fact they now have no use for and have lost total respect for the MJPS. These are people who have never even got a speeding ticket in their lives let alone been part of anything criminal.

It is something the MJPS has got to face and that is they need to regain the trust of the innocent victims and not the trust of police informants as they hope for the next big bust to issue a press release on.

As I listened to the story - I was being told by someone I would not trust with my back turned to them last week - it is becoming painfully obvious to me there needs to be a major change in not just the public face but also the realities of how the MJPS treats innocent victims if they truly want to re-establish trust within the community.

In my opinion they have a big job ahead of them and a long way to go in order to achieve it.