Mountie loses cash, drugs, has illegal gun

Mountie loses cash, drugs, has illegal gun

Docked 5 days pay for neglect of duty, discreditable conduct

By Gary Dimmock, Ottawa Citizen May 17, 2011



Const. Matt Wright's police work was anything but textbook the day he made an arrest in a street-level drugs and money bust.

The RCMP constable, a former military man, never fully documented the bag of pills and wad of cash he seized.

Then two months later, after working late at the Chilliwack, B.C. detachment, Wright, left with a box containing files, his notebooks, RCMP identification card, and the seized money and drugs.

He loaded the box into his personal vehicle and later that same night reported it had been stolen from his car. Everything was recovered, except the drugs and money. It is impossible to know what kind or the exact amount of drugs because they were never fully documented, nor was the cash. Wright says it was a bag of about 50 blue pills and a "thin wad" of cash, that contained at least one $20 note on the outside.

In an internal disciplinary ruling in Ottawa dated March 28, Wright, who admitted the allegations, was docked two days pay for neglect of duty.

"The lapse of judgment in the proper care, control and storage of an exhibit may be out of character; however, members must be vigilant in properly processing exhibits. The public and the courts expect nothing less than perfection," the disciplinary board ruled.

It wasn't the only problem the board had with Wright. In July 2007, months after he reported the missing drugs and money, the Mounties discovered he had purchased a rifle but didn't have a firearms certificate. Wright had purchased a 1973 Winchester RCMP Centennial rifle from a retired member in 2005. At the time, he asked a colleague to register it while he tried to get a firearms certificate.

Two years later, his supervisor learned Wright had a rifle in his possession that was not registered to him. And Wright still didn't have a firearms certificate.

His supervisor seized the gun and Wright was charged with disgraceful conduct under the RCMP Act. The constable was docked an additional three days pay for having a firearm without a licence. The disciplinary board stated: "We commit to uphold the law and by acquiring a firearm without the proper licensing, Constable Wright is breaking the very law he swore to enforce." Wright apologized to the disciplinary board and has shown remorse and regret for embarrassing the national police force. He also assured senior Mounties that he now processes crime exhibits "meticulously."

gdimmock@ottawacitizen.com

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Mountie+loses+cash+drugs+illegal/4794073/story.html#ixzz1Mc2bR6hd
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What this article tells us is that away for the media spotlight, the police think the registry is a waste of time also.

Thousands of ghost guns registered to business!

I remember hearing that the record for "ghost guns" was held by an auctioneer in Alberta. He was getting close to retirement and was winding up the business. He contacted the RCMP to talk about handing back his firearms business license and winding up his business and discovered that he still "had" several THOUSAND guns in his inventory.

All of them were sold and legally transfered and the new owners probably all had valid reg certs, but they had not removed them from his file. (I understand that this was common under the old "green sheet" system).

The NFA had a story of a legal case where a guy in the maritimes (a cop no less) was charged because he had allegedly moved, changed his address and moved a handgun without authourisation. Turned out at trial that there were three existing reg certs, one for him at his old address, one for a gun dealer to whom he had at one time consigned it, and the current reg cert that HE HAD IN HIS POSSESSION for HIS NEW ADDRESS, but that the RCMP had no record of in THEIR files (again, this was under the "old" system).

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26 Ghost guns a year at one store!!!!!!

A firearms dealer ran a check. He asked Ottawa for a list of all registered firearms that Ottawa thought were in his store. The list, when it arrived, included over 200 firearms that were not in his store – ghost guns. He learned that ghost guns were accumulating in his store at an average of 26 firearms a year. All the ghost guns had been legally sold and correctly transferred – but the government’s sloppy firearms control system often failed to delete the record that the firearm was owned by the dealer and located in his store. He “had” over 200 guns, shown in Ottawa’s records as being in his store that were not actually there. He laboriously proved to Ottawa that every one of them was gone, and settled back, satisfied that he had solved the problem. He hadn’t. He ran the same exercise again, a few years later. This time there were even more ghost guns registered to his store. The dealer gave up. He keeps his own records, and has no faith in Ottawa’s records

Ghost firearms, long transfers, etc

I had a Ruger 10/22 LR, registered with the wrong serial number on the registration card. Tried to advise the CFC of their error, after numerous attempts (buisy signals phone calls, 2 letters over 2 yrs), it took approx. 5 yrs for the CFC to send me a revised registration card. I kept all my paperwork in case I was stopped by Police. What could I have done, I called them xxx, wrote them xx, having correct registration/serial numbers were not a priority to them??? Registration saves lives?, I don't think so!
-- bush24

The CFC still has a restricted firearm registered to me that I never owned...a site sponsor sold me a restricted firearm and accidentally transferred two of the same model to me even though I ordered and recieved only one. The vendor immediately corrected the mistake on their end, we re-transferred this "ghost" firearm back to them, and still, even though I have the paperwork showing it was transferred back to the vendor, it came up as registered to me during a recent discussion with the CFC. At this point, the CFC database has no credibility whatsoever...
-- shootemup

I recently had a new barrel installed on a rifle.
It wound up being longer than original. I did my homework and research and since the rifle was originally purchased in the mid 90's there was already record of it so i did as i figured was the right thing. I contacted the local RCMP Firearms office, asked what i needed to do, she said come down, have it measured and verified to correct the original dimensions. I figured no problem, this isn't so bad.
Your registry paper work says barrel length is greater than whatever the default measurement is on that form, but they have record of the exact length which makes me wonder right there why our own paper work can't have the correct data.
Second, she proceeded to screw together a metal cleaning rod to insert it in the end of my new Krieger barrel, i said "no, no..............you won't be doing that, " luckily I had my wooden dowel emergency measuring stick with me, i took care of that myself.
Ok, so, all this was fine and dandy, no big deal.
So, she proceeded to verify all information, guess what , they didn't have the correct serial number that was on the rifle.
So for 15 years i had in my possession A rifle that belonged to no one. What if I ever had been stopped and their records on file indicate that wasn't my firearm? Would that have been an expensive and nightmarish situation. not any fault of my own. Can't imagine how bad this could have got.
-- Kelly Timoffee

I purchased a P-38 from Tradex as a "collectors piece", took EIGHT MONTHS before they approved the transfer!-- Griffoneur