VANCOUVER - A senior officer with the Vancouver Police Department says the RCMP failed to share important information about the investigation into Robert Pickton, including when the Mounties interviewed the serial killer.
Deputy Chief Doug LePard is continuing his testimony at the public inquiry into the case, detailing the series of problems that hampered the investigation before Pickton's arrest in 2002.
In the years before his arrest, Pickton was the police department's No. 1 suspect in the disappearance of sex workers, but the investigation was left to the Port Coquitlam RCMP.
The Mounties interrogated Pickton in January 2000, but LePard says the they didn't give Vancouver police advanced warning of the interview or share that information afterwards.
LePard says the RCMP also didn't tell Vancouver police they were struggling with resources and weren't treating the Pickton case as a high priority.
The two police forces have been criticized for not sharing information and battling over jurisdiction, with some critics claiming a turf war was getting in the way of solving the missing women case.
