Here is just another example of this behaviour. A newspaper photographer living near the scene of a police shootout shows up with a camera because he hears the gunfire. While taking pictures of the scene, the police seize his camera.
Now the police chief admits this was a mistake. That is good, but notice that the police chief does not recognize it is the right of any citizen to attend any crime scene and take pictures (so long as they don't interfere with the police). Also, notice that the incestuous relationship: the New Westminister police force will investigate the Vancouver police force. Think about that. There is no real independent investigation of police misconduct. Instead, "colleagues" get to investigate each other... and amazingly they so very often find no basis for admitting any police misconduct.
The following is from the Vancouver Sun newspaper report on the incident:
Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu has apologized to the Province newspaper for an incident Sunday in which police officers at the scene of a police shooting seized the camera of Province photographer Jason Payne.
Payne was taking pictures of the incident when he was grabbed by officers and had his camera seized. ...
Chu said the camera was seized by officers in the heat of the moment as they were trying to preserve a crime scene, in the belief that the camera contained photographs that might be evidence of what had happened.
He said it was not police policy to seize cameras from the media. The shooting and the incident involving Payne are being investigated by the New Westminster Police department, Chu said.
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