A 2021 arrest in Duncan for public intoxication that involved two RCMP officers dragging a man into a cell by his hair did not meet the threshold for consideration of criminal charges but will be referred to the RCMP to consider whether the action violated its code of conduct, the province’s police watchdog says.
The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. cleared the officers of criminal wrongdoing in the Nov. 21, 2021, arrest of a man initially suspected of being involved in a vehicle crash while intoxicated.
The watchdog pieced together a narrative of the arrest based on statements from the injured man, who suffered a concussion and required surgery for a torn shoulder, as well as statements from a witness, an officer witness, a first responder, surveillance video from cells and medical records.
Officers responded to a vehicle that had crashed into a rock on the side of the road on West Shawnigan Lake Road. A witness who called police reported they saw a man wearing a grey shirt and holding a beer walking away from the scene. The witness believed the man was intoxicated.
At the scene, officers confirmed the vehicle was unoccupied and they could not initially find anyone nearby.
Shortly after arriving, they saw a man walking along the roadway in a grey sweater with a backpack. They believed he might be related to the crash and asked him for identification.
One officer described the man as “ornery” and “belligerent” and said that he refused to answer questions or provide his identification and he seemed intoxicated.
The man admitted he had had a couple of drinks and questioned why police needed his ID. He later told IIO investigators he felt intimidated by the officers and did not want to speak with them.
While officers were questioning the man, the driver of the vehicle arrived and explained he had hit black ice and crashed. He told police the man was not involved.
Officers believed the man was too intoxicated to allow him to continue walking down a dark road at night, so one of the officers offered the man a ride because he did not want to take him to police cells.
The man refused, so the officers arrested him for public intoxication and causing a disturbance.
One of the officers took him to Duncan RCMP cells.
CCTV footage showed that officer and another officer processing the man to book him into cells.
The man was uncuffed and complied with instructions to remove clothing down to one layer.
An officer is seen on video moving toward the man and touching his long hair, which was tied up. The man can be seen swatting the officer’s hand away.
The man told IIO investigators an officer had asked whether he had a hair tie in and he said no. “It just escalated from there,” he said.
The officer then grabbed the man’s shoulder and the man grabbed the officer’s shirt.
A struggle ensured and the two officers tried to control the man using physical force, taking him to the ground by his hair. They then dragged him into a cell by his hair and his arm.
In the cell, an officer struck the man in the side of his body with his knee.
The officer then untied the man’s hair and video shows a chunk of his hair came out during a struggle.
Four hours later, the man asked to go to hospital because of a dull ache in his head.
Medical records show he suffered a concussion and several tears to his right shoulder that required surgery.
The IIO, which investigates police-involved incidents that result in death or serious harm, sought to determine whether the force was necessary, proportional and reasonable.
Chief civilian director Jessica Berglund found the officer’s actions were not perfect, but they were reasonable and necessary to control the man quickly while he was uncuffed.
She found it reasonable for officers to stop him because he matched the description of someone involved in a crash. Despite not being involved, it was reasonable to arrest him because officers concluded it was dangerous to leave him intoxicated, Berglund wrote in her report.
“That being said, the officers’ actions that day cause concern. They used [the man’s] hair to drag him into the cell. There did not appear to be de-escalation techniques attempted by the officers in their dealings with [the man],” she wrote.
Better communication might have helped the officers deal with the man’s reaction to being detained.
The matter will be referred to the RCMP for consideration of whether the code of conduct was violated.
