Charges against police officers dropped
Assault causing bodily harm charges against two Peterborough police officers have been withdrawn.
“We had and have confidence in these officers and that is why we never suspended them,” Chief Murray Rodd said.
Const. Tim Fish and Const. Geunwoo Kim’s charges were dropped in Peterborough provincial court on Thursday.
The charges stemmed from an incident in August 2017 during the arrest of a 60-year-old man. According to the Ontario Special Investigations Unit (SIU), at approximately 2 p.m. on Aug. 3, 2017, officers went to a commercial/residential building in the Water and Simcoe streets area. Police were responding to a call about a man causing a disturbance. The SIU says officers went to the second floor of the building, where they were involved in an interaction with a man.
The man was arrested and taken to the police station. He was then taken by ambulance to the Peterborough Regional Health Centre with serious injuries.
As a result of investigation, the SIU charged the officers at the beginning of the year. Rodd said an independent Crown representing the SIU decided there wasn’t enough evidence and no prospect of a conviction.
Rodd said the SIU charges are extremely stressful on officers.
“We are traditionally cast as the good guys and when they are subject to criminal charges or investigation, it is exponential (the stress),” Rodd said. “In this case, I think there was opportunity for a conversation at an early point that may have prevented the charges.”
He said the SIU has a very important role for independent oversight, but at the end of the day police officers have a very difficult and dangerous job to do.
“With the new legislation it is going to be a new normal that more and more of this (investigations) are going to happen,” he said.
To meet those expectations of always getting it right, Rodd said, it means they’re going to have to spend more money, resources and time in training and in rehearsing for success.
“Everything we do in a split second, and a few minutes is subject to hours, days and years of retrospective criticism and critique,” he said.
“Thankfully the majority of police officers everywhere in Ontario and Canada go to work everyday with the best interest of the community at heart and want peaceful resolutions.”