Rule changes being recommended to Vancouver police after Indigenous man, granddaughter handcuffed
CTV
The Vancouver Police Board is to hear a report Thursday recommending the force change its handcuffing policy after the arrest of an Indigenous man and his 12-year-old granddaughter at a bank in 2019.
The Vancouver Police Board is to hear a report Thursday recommending the force change its handcuffing policy after an Indigenous man and his 12-year-old granddaughter were handcuffed outside a bank in 2019.
The police board said it launched a review of the department's protocols when Maxwell Johnson and his granddaughter were handcuffed after trying to open an account at the Bank of Montreal using their government-issued status cards.
The board report said it was later determined there was no criminal activity involved.
The report said an extensive review included an examination of all officer training relevant to Indigenous cultural competency, along with a review of the legal authorities and policy surrounding the use of restraint devices.
The new policy recommends that handcuffs be used when reasonable, proportionate to the risk, and necessary to fulfil a legitimate policing objective when the officer believes using cuffs is necessary.
“It provides direction on documentation and the safe applications on handcuffs, it specifies that officers must have the lawful authority to use a restraint, it provides legal considerations that would result in that lawful authority, and it entrenches an officer's ability to exercise discretion,” the report reads.
Johnson filed a complaint with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal last year alleging the bank called 911 over an identification issue because they are Indigenous, while it accuses the police of racial profiling leading to their detention and the use of handcuffs.
