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

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.

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.

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.