Complaints commission clears police over allegation

The Public Complaints Commission has declared a complaint against the Saskatoon Police Service unfounded, the city’s police chief says.

In April 2018, Saskatoon resident Ken Thomas filed a complaint alleging police drove him outside the city limits and left him there to fend for himself.

On Monday, police Chief Troy Cooper said the PCC investigation cleared the police force of any wrongdoing in the case.

Cooper said police “cooperated fully” with the investigation, which was conducted by the oversight body and not by the police force itself. The force provided GPS logs for its fleet of vehicles, as well as video and audio recordings which automatically activate in police vehicles.

“This information was undoubtedly very useful in proving that there was no contact between the SPS and Mr. Thomas on April 21,” Cooper said in a prepared statement. “This technology has been key to disproving false allegations,” he said. “Our police service currently enjoys very high levels of public trust but we do not take that for granted.”

Since 2012, six other similar allegations have been made against Saskatoon police officers. In each case, the claims were deemed unfounded and, in two cases, charges of mischief were laid against the complainants, Cooper noted.

Cooper said police have reached out to the Crown prosecutors’ office “to determine what our options might be for further investigation” in the Thomas case. The police service takes any allegations “incredibly seriously” and knows they must be addressed as quickly as possible “while reassuring people that our members are doing their best to serve the community,” Cooper said.