B.C. police watchdog clears Mounties of wrongdoing after man's arm broken during traffic stop

Investigators from B.C.'s Independent Investigations Office are seen in this file photo from the IIO.

British Columbia's police oversight agency says there are no grounds for criminal charges against four Mounties after a man's arm was broken during an arrest on Vancouver Island.

However, the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. chastised the officers for refusing to co-operate with the agency's investigators, saying in its decision Wednesday the Mounties breached their statutory duty to comply with the investigation, and caused "significant difficulty and delay" in the proceedings.

Investigators with the IIO were assigned to the case on Dec. 3, 2022, after members of the North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP got into an altercation with a driver during a roadside impairment check.

The local RCMP officers had stopped the suspect vehicle on the Trans-Canada Highway near Green Road shortly after 10 p.m. The driver told police he had consumed one glass of wine earlier in the night, and he was directed to pull over onto the side of the highway for further investigation, according to the IIO decision.

"The incident from that point is captured on dash camera footage from a police vehicle," the decision noted, "but the officer failed to activate his microphone while he was dealing with the (driver), so no audio of the interaction was recorded."

Car 'rocking from side to side'

When the police told the man to get out of his car to provide a breathalyzer sample, he refused, telling an officer to administer the test through the window. "Police will generally not permit this, as it is preferable for the test to be conducted in front of a police vehicle so it can be recorded on video," the IIO decision says.

After five minutes of further discussion, the officer put on his gloves and told the driver he was under arrest for obstruction. The officer opened the car door and reached inside to apprehend the man, who further resisted, prompting another officer to join in the struggle.

The police oversight agency says it reviewed video from the dashboard camera of the police vehicle, which showed the suspect's car "rocking from side to side" during the altercation.

A radio call went out and two more officers joined the scuffle as the suspect clung to the steering wheel with both hands. The four officers managed to drag the man from the vehicle over the course of a two-minute struggle, during which the man's left arm was briefly caught inside the vehicle before he was taken to the ground and handcuffed.

Paramedics transported the man to hospital where he was diagnosed with fractures to both bones in his left forearm, according to the IIO decision. "While at the hospital, he told an escorting officer that four officers had removed him from the vehicle and the door had closed on his arm while it was trapped in the seatbelt," the IIO said.

'Refusal to co-operate'

The IIO investigates all officer-related incidents that result in serious harm or death in B.C., whether or not there are any allegations of wrongdoing on the part of the police.

Sandra J. Hentzen, the agency's chief civilian director, said that while she found no evidence the police committed a criminal offence in the present case, the lack of co-operation from the officers hampered the agency's investigation.

"All the involved officers initially refused to provide their written notes or reports to the IIO," she wrote, explaining how, in cases such as this, the agency typically identifies one officer as the "subject officer" who may have caused the injury, while all other officers one scene are designated as "witness officers."

Unlike subject officers, who are afforded certain protections, including the right to decline an interview with IIO investigators, witness officers "are required by their duties under the Police Act to co-operate fully with the IIO, including providing written notes and statements and attending for interview," Hentzen wrote.

"That refusal to co-operate caused significant difficulty and delay in the investigation, in circumstances where there was very little evidence other than that of the officers themselves about which police actions had caused the harm under investigation," she added.

The IIO eventually gained access to a police records database, allowing the watchdog to identify the officers involved. "Eventually, four 'subject officers' were identified, and those officers continued to decline to provide any account of their uses of force that may have injured the (driver)," Hentzen wrote.

Further hampering the investigation, the man who was arrested also refused to co-operate with the IIO investigation, declining to provide medical records or an account of his arrest. "As a civilian, (he) has no legal or moral duty to assist IIO investigators with their work, and chose not to do so," Hentzen wrote.

Despite the obstructions, the investigation resolved that police did not act with unnecessary or unreasonable force in removing the man from his car and handcuffing him on the ground.

"It is unfortunate that the mechanics of his removal caused an injury to his arm, but the real cause of that injury was the (man's) continued refusal to co-operate, not any unjustified actions on the part of any police officer," Hentzen wrote.