Use of force by B.C. RCMP officers raises 'concern' but won't lead to criminal charges

An RCMP patch can be seen on an officer's shirt in this undated file photo. (File)

Two B.C. RCMP officers won’t face criminal charges for their use for force that left a man who had been arrested for public intoxication with a concussion, a torn shoulder and a chunk of his hair missing – but they could face professional discipline.

This week, the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. issued its report on the November 2021 arrest on Vancouver Island, declining to forward a report to Crown while referring the matter to the RCMP which will determine if the officers violated the force's code of conduct.

The man who was injured, referred to as the affected person or "the AP" in the IIO report, was initially stopped by police because he was seen with an open beer near the scene of a single-vehicle crash in Shawnigan Lake.

Although police determined the AP was not the driver of the vehicle, "the officers believed that the AP was too intoxicated to allow him to continue walking down the middle of a dark road late at night," the report said, adding that police arrested AP for being intoxicated in public and causing a disturbance.

The use of force

When the AP arrived at the RCMP cells in Duncan, "an interaction took place resulting in the AP suffering a concussion and a torn shoulder that required surgery," according to the IIO.

The two officers involved in the interaction, whose use of force was being investigated, are referred to as SO1 and SO2 in the report.

Before putting the AP in a jail cell, the officers uncuffed him and asked him to remove "excess layers of clothing," which the report said the AP did without objection, based on the CCTV video from the jail.

Then one of the officers touched the AP's hair to try to determine if he had it tied up, which the report explains police do because hair ties are routinely confiscated along with glasses or piercings before someone is put in a cell.

"The AP then can be seen on the video swatting SO2’s hand away. The AP said, 'it just escalated from there,'" according to the report.

"SO1 then grabbed the AP’s shoulder, and the AP then grabbed SO1’s shirt. A struggle ensued between the AP and the officers. The video shows that SO1 and SO2 attempted to gain control of the AP by using physical force, bringing him to the ground by his hair. The officers then dragged the AP into the cell by his arm and hair. Once in the cell, SO1 also struck the side of the AP’s body with his knee. SO1 then untied the AP’s long hair while in the cell. The video shows a chunk of the AP’s hair came out during the struggle."

A few hours later, the AP was taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with a concussion and "several" tears to his right shoulder, the report said.

Watchdog's conclusion

In this case, the IIO found the two officers were justified in using force against the AP and that the use of force was reasonable and necessary in the circumstances.

"That being said, the officers’ actions that day cause concern," the IIO report said.

"They used the AP’s hair to drag him into the cell. There did not appear to be de-escalation strategies attempted by the officers in their dealings with the AP." It also does not appear that there was adequate communication throughout the incident, as the AP did not understand why he was being detained in the first instance or the search procedure that followed his arrest."

The IIO was notified about the arrest by the RCMP in early 2023 after the AP made a complaint to Mounties in 2022. The medical information received along with the complaint indicated that the AP's injuries may have met the threshold of serious harm, which triggered the IIO investigation.