Inquest ends with recommendations for Peterborough police
A jury has made three recommendations to the Peterborough Police Service after hearing three days of evidence at the inquest into the shooting death of Cody Cole.
“I think they are appropriate and very well thought out,” Peterborough Police Chief Scott Gilbert said following the reading of the recommendations in Peterborough Superior Court on Monday, Nov. 5.
“Certainly as an organization we are going to look at them very closely and do exactly what the jury had asked us to do.”
The jury found that Cody Cole died on April 4, 2015 on a road near 496 and 498 Wolfe Street from a gunshot wound to the head. The jury ruled Cole’s death a homicide but the corner’s inquest verdict carries no criminal or civil liability.
Const. Jeff Plumbe, the Peterborough officer that shot the 23-year-old, was cleared criminally by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), with the police oversight body finding Plumbe was justified in his use of force. Plumbe fired one shot after he was stabbed in the leg by Cole.
As a result of the inquest, it was of the jury’s opinion that Peterborough police undertake a review of its radio communications systems; equipment and best practices regarding the maintenance and testing of the equipment; occurrences of locked open microphones; and the training of police officers and civilian members of its routine, emergency and override operation of the radio communications systems and equipment.
During the inquest, jurors heard how one officer’s microphone got locked on open, preventing officers from sharing information over the radio. Plumbe was alone when he encountered Cole, and couldn’t communicate with other officers in the area that had been dispatched to the same call. It wasn’t until the open microphone was overridden by an emergency button that Plumbe came back on the radio stating “Shot’s fired, I’ve been stabbed.”
Officers testified at the inquest that they were unaware of the length of time needed to hold down the emergency button to override the system.
“We are going to provide an additional refresher course to all of our members on the actual capabilities of our radio systems and what they need to do to activate it in an emergency,” Gilbert explained.
“There is the ability to change the timing of the emergency button so we are going to look at that as well to see if it is viable."
Secondly, the jury suggested the Peterborough Police should review the training scenarios utilized in its use of force training and consider including a scenario based upon the evidence in Cole’s inquest.
Plumbe and other officers testified their training was second to none, but Plumbe told jurors he broke training protocol the night he shot Cole by approaching a suspect with an edged weapon.
Generally, police use a 21-foot rule when dealing with a knifewielding suspect as anything within that distance is deemed as a deadly threat.
Plumbe explained to the jury he broke protocol because he didn’t want to shoot Cole. Rather, he thought he could take the suspect to the ground and disarm him of the knife. According to Gilbert, the use of force training scenarios used by Peterborough police are very thought out and realistic. As they do for all use of force incidents, police will take the opportunity to learn from the inquest.
“We review those and see if there is an area we need to improve,” he explained.
“We are going to look at all the circumstances surrounding the death of Cody Cole and see how we can reflect that into our training and certainly see how we can improve to make sure that no other family has to suffer a similar tragedy as the Coles.”
Lastly, the jury recommended police investigate the technologies available to provide vehicle and personnel location through a Global Positioning System (GPS) as a compliment to existing communication systems.
Because of the open microphone, it was unknown where Plumbe and Cole were located, the inquest heard.
Gilbert explained that is already in the works. In 2017, the force purchased GPS software. It has yet to be implemented because their firewall is the process of being rebuilt. They should be ready to start implementing the GPS system early next year, he said.
“It will be an excellent officer safety tool and (have) excellent efficiency to show where our members are and send the closest unit to a call,” Gilbert said.