TOUCHDOWN: RCMP APOLOGY

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have had numerous issues to deal with surrounding the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski. We coach our clients that when dealing with crisis issues, two key things need to be addressed: the human element and an indication of progress or improvement. Mr. Dziekanski’s death is still being investigated, but rather than wait until that concludes, the RCMP addressed both of these issues. William Sweeny, the RCMP’s second in command, issued a direct and formal apology for the ‘tragic death’. Though the apology stopped short of offering consolation to the family, the second aspect — lessons learned and moving forward — added to the apology and was really what the RCMP needed to address from a communications standpoint. With concern over whether or not the RCMP was doing anything significant to prevent a similar occurrence Sweeny told a Senate committee that the Mounties need to re-learn how to talk to people. “We are committed to learning as much as possible from this terrible event.” An admission of this sort bares the soul, but just saying you will do something is easy. People want to know what you ARE doing about things. Where Sweeny did well was to provide not only information from the perspective of RCMP officers in general, but also to give recommendations as to what the force needs to do by way of adjusting their course of action is similar cases. He focused on the need to spend more time on training to return to more ‘traditional’ policing methods to handle potentially violent situations. Sweeny’s comments are an indication that the Mounties are indeed looking to make good on the lessons learned. Come what may of the investigation, his comments have set the groundwork for improvement.