To the director of the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team

Director Purvis, I suggest that, given the fact of TWO taser-related deaths over the past few days in the province of Alberta, you owe it to the victims and their families, and Canadians everywhere, to IMMEDIATELY engage public overseers from the community to ensure independence in the investigative process. Section 46.1 of the Alberta Police Act states that you may "APPOINT ONE OR MORE MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC AS OVERSEERS TO OBSERVE, MONITOR OR REVIEW AN INVESTIGATION TO ENSURE THE INTEGRITY OF THE PROCESS OF THE INVESTIGATION."

JUSTICE MUST BE SEEN TO BE DONE, TO BE DONE.

From the website of the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT):

The department created the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (“ASIRT”) to ensure excellence and independence in the investigation of matters referred by the Director of Law Enforcement.

ASIRT has jurisdiction over all sworn police officers in the Province of Alberta. Their mandate is to investigate incidents or complaints involving serious injury or death of any person, and matters of a serious or sensitive nature, that may have resulted from the actions of a police officer. They are governed by Section 46.1 of the Police Act, and currently have two offices located in Edmonton and Calgary.

ASIRT is lead [sic] by a civilian director, Clifton G Purvis, who is a lawyer and Crown Prosecutor. Reporting to him are:

A civilian assistant director
Two civilian criminal analysts
Four civilian investigators
Ten sworn police officers (from the Calgary Police Service, Edmonton Police Service, and the RCMP)

The director may also engage public overseers from the community to ensure independence in the investigative process.

Once an investigation has been completed, the ASIRT director reviews the results of investigations to ensure completeness and fairness. A report is than forwarded to the office of the Crown Prosecutor requesting an opinion on charges. After the director receives the opinion, he will decide what charges if any will result from the investigation.