Three days after the Saanich bank robbery, there are still few concrete details about what happened, and one expert says that’s likely to protect the integrity of the investigation.
On Tuesday, members of the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team were called to the Bank of Montreal in Saanich for a bank robbery. In the incident, two suspects were killed and six police officers were injured.
In the following days, police have released few details, and information about the suspects, what weapons they used and the chronology of events are still unknown.
Benjamin Morgan, director and managing director of the Center for Crisis and Risk Communications, says that while it’s natural to want to know more, there are probably reasons police aren’t releasing more.
“There are so many questions we want to know. Why and who was in our community? What are they doing here? Who are they?” Morgan said in an interview with CHEK News. “I don’t suspect it’s being withheld just to keep everyone wondering, I’m sure there’s going to be some rationale behind withholding that information right now.”
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Morgan says even though he wasn’t involved in the Saanich investigation, there are common reasons why details aren’t revealed in investigations like this one.
In the U.S., information about active shooter or other high-risk situations is often released shortly after the incident, and Morgan says there are some reasons why investigators in the Saanich robbery can’t do the same.
“Certainly the laws, privacy laws, etc. are a little bit different in the U.S. than here in Canada,” Morgan suggested as one potential explanation. “If deceased family members have not yet been identified, that may be one consideration. [The information] can be a really important part of the investigation.
Another part is in British Columbia, after the Independent Investigation Agency stepped in, Morgan says police departments are limited in the information they are allowed to share.
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“In this circumstance, it was certainly such a large event with officers injured, with fatalities, I suspect the Saanich Police Department is under an obligation not to share that type of information because now it’s in the precinct or in the IIO investigation process,” he said. Morgan.
“So I imagine in many circumstances the Saanich Police Department will be limited in what it can share.”
In addition, Morgan says that during investigations, it’s important to share only verified information, because sharing information that then has to be corrected later can undermine trust in institutions.
“A very important part of communication, especially in circumstances like this, is trust,” Morgan said. “And if organizations like the Saanich Police Department rush to provide answers without really understanding all the different layers and all the different intricacies, and they come out with the wrong information, that can erode trust.”
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However, Morgan says that in crisis situations in the absence of official information, the community can fill the void with rumors and speculation.
“As much as authorities don’t provide information, the community will jump in with their own speculation, which can be very damaging and a big challenge for many different organizations,” Morgan said.
“We saw that during the Boston Marathon bombing, where it took authorities three to five hours to really engage in that conversation, and that gap was filled with all kinds of speculation and accusations that really led investigators in the wrong direction.”
When crisis communicators choose what information to release and what not to release, Morgan says there are several considerations.
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First, all information that will affect public safety must be made public. He says as the situation continues, the information will be focused on things like telling people in a certain area to shelter in place or avoid an area.
The second consideration is determining how much to release to obtain information from the public or potential witnesses while retaining enough to preserve the integrity of the investigation.
“What I mean by that is we share the weapons that were used, were ‘x,’ if the police agency doing the investigation is questioning a potential suspect or someone they think would have information if all the details are made public, then if I was, if I was the suspect I was questioning, I could easily say, ‘oh yeah, those are the weapons we used,'” Morgan said.
“Where right now the only people who know what weapons were used are the people involved in the actual incident. So it’s a very delicate balance.
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Rob Gordon, professor of criminology at Simon Fraser University, said investigators may still be looking for a motive.
He says banks often don’t have a lot of cash on hand, so a robbery is unusual.
“It was a very unusual bank robbery for a suburban bank,” Gordon said. “It must be a very clever operation, which is why not many of them happen. I mean, bank robberies in this Butch-Cassidy tradition are a thing of the past.
Given the weapons and explosive devices, Gordon believes they were aimed at the bank’s vault and safes.
“I think what you might have is a couple of opportunists who had some inside knowledge and decided it was worth trying to get that money,” Gordon said.
-With files from April Lawrence
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