Recommendations stemming from the death of a 43-year-old woman shot by a Victoria police officer should include recognition of the psychological toll such incidents take on officers, the lawyer for the B.C. Police Association said Tuesday.
Claire Hatcher, whose association represents about 3,500 municipal officers around the province, including those in the Victoria Police Department, made the comments at a public hearing into the death of Lisa Rauch, which resumed this week in Victoria.
Rauch died after being shot in back of the head on Christmas Day 2019 with plastic projectiles fired by a VicPD officer. The hearing into her death began in April and is scheduled to be completed Thursday after pausing for a summer break.
“It will surprise no one that post-traumatic injuries and occupational-stress injuries are an ongoing concern for our membership,” Hatcher told hearing adjudicator Wally Oppal, a retired judge and former B.C. attorney general.
After the hearing wraps up, Oppal will consider submissions from parties ranging from family members to police, and come up with recommendations, which could take months.
His findings could have far-reaching effects on police departments and other organizations, Hatcher said.
Oppal will also consider a misconduct allegation against Sgt. Ron Kirkwood, who fired the shots at Rauch from an ARWEN weapon — considered a “less lethal” option to subdue a person — in a unit at a Pandora Avenue supportive-housing facility.
Rauch had barricaded herself inside the unit and a fire had broken out.
Kirkwood, who was a constable at the time of the incident, was cleared of criminal wrongdoing by the Independent Investigations Office, B.C.’s police-watchdog agency.
Ron Rauch, Lisa’s father, said outside the hearing that her family has had questions about what happened ever since her death.
On Monday, the family called for better de-escalation policies and an end to the “catch-and-release” approach that saw Lisa Rauch released from custody on the day she died, after she had been brought in for intoxication.
One of the issues raised at the hearing has been Kirkwood’s lack of note taking and documentation of the incident.
Kirkwood did not make notes on the shooting on the advice of a lawyer, and instead dictated what police call a “will-say” statement to another officers.
Public hearing counsel Brad Hickford suggested Monday that the provincial government enact legislation for a provincial note-taking standard for all police in B.C. to eliminate any confusion.
But Hatcher said requirements for someone in Kirkwood’s situation “should be informed by how the officer is doing, how that officer is functioning in those moments.”
“How can an officer provide good, solid, reliable evidence when their brain is not there, if their mind is not there?”
In his testimony at the hearing, Kirkwood said he was “an emotional disaster” after the shooting.
The hearing continues on Wednesday.
