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Sheriffs and Court Services

he high-profile trial of serial killer Robert Pickton—convicted

| in late 2007 on six counts of second-degree murder of sex-trade

workers in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside—was a demanding test

of British Columbia's sheriff system. In sheer size, this was one of the largest

courtroom events in Canadian history. The vital services of deputy sheriffs,

the highly visible backbone of court security, were called upon to move

Pickton from lockup to law court in a convoy, check attendees entering the
courtroom and stand guard during the trial.

As well as escorting the judge to and from his chambers, armed
deputy sheriffs brought the accused to the New Westminster court in a
motorcade following strict rules of procedure. Visitors to the trial had to
pass through newly installed search gates where the deputies screened them
for forbidden articles. In only the first six months of the formal trial, when
legal arguments were being given under a publication ban in 2006, they
processed 140,000 people and seized 2,200 knives, various firearm parts,
641 scissors, syringes and other drug paraphernalia, 360 tape recorders and
1,100 other contraband objects. Inside the courtroom, which had a wall of
bulletproof glass separating Pickton from the public gallery, their presence
ensured a secure environment during an emotion-laden trial observed by
friends and family of the victims.

These deputy sheriffs were graduates of the Justice Institute's Courts
Academy. It falls under the mandate of the Ministry of the Attorney Gener-
al’s Courts Services, which leads 1,300 staff in delivering court adminis-
tration and deputy sheriff services to eighty-eight B.C. communities. The
branch renews its contract with the Institute annually to fund the Acad-
emy’s training of all the deputy sheriffs in the province through a post-
employment program that graduates up to sixty men and women a year.

Superintedent Jackie Ross says, “The Courts Academy is very
supportive of the sheriffs out in the field. They have expertise in curriculum
design and putting together material like manuals for us.” Before becoming
a full sheriff, she was one of ninety current female deputy sheriffs in the
service.

The Courts Academy opened in its initial incarnation as the Courts
Service Training Division on the Jericho site—shortly after the Institute
opened there in 1978 with the Police Academy and then the Corrections
Staff Training and Development Division. The Courts program, part of
the Educational Services Division, offered courses for sheriffs, court clerks
and court administrators. Seventeen students took the initial, basic twen-
ty-eight-day sheriffs’ course. Don Broadbent became the first Program
Director when 157 students attended in the 1979-80 year. In 1982, the Divi-
sion was renamed the Court Services Academy (under the Justice Services

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