West Vancouver police are investigating YouTube footage of an officer swerving his SUV into the path of oncoming longboarders last week.
The boarders were recording an illegal ride down Finch Hill Road Wednesday afternoon when the police vehicle turned into an opposing lane with its lights activated.
The longboarders veered to the sides of the road to avoid the vehicle, causing one of them to crash onto the pavement.
“All I did was slam on my breaks,” the officer said in an ensuing confrontation that was also caught on camera.
“It’s illegal to ride a longboard out here. I’m sick and tired of dealing with you, do you understand?”
“Is that what you do to cyclists, you cut in front of them?” boarder Lee Cation replied. “I can’t believe you did that. You see the wounds you caused to this guy?”
The trio was then ticketed $35 for breaking a city bylaw banning longboarding.
The footage has sparked outrage on social media, leading the West Vancouver Police Department to launch an internal review to determine if “policies and guidelines were properly followed and whether any further action is warranted.”
“We have to be necessarily very thorough and that’s the process we’re in right now,” Const. Jeff Palmer said Monday.
The department said it will keep social media responses limited in relation to the encounter.
