Probe clears officers over woman’s injury

West Shore RCMP did not use undue force against a woman whose arm was broken during an arrest outside the Langford police station, says the Independent Investigations Office of B.C.

“Her injury was not the result of excessive force on their part but of [her] own physical resistance,” said the decision by Ronald MacDonald, chief civilian director for the IIO.

The woman was diagnosed with a spiral fracture of her left humerus, which is commonly the result of a twisting motion.

The incident happened Dec. 11, 2019, while the woman was being taken into custody after an allegation she didn’t pay a taxi fare. She was taken to the West

Shore police station about 8:30 p.m. — at her own suggestion — by the cab driver, who had picked her up in downtown Victoria.

According to the IIO decision, the cab driver told investigators that the woman seemed “quite positive, upbeat” at the thought of going to the station, and seemed to regard it as “part of the night’s entertainment.”

He said the woman was drunk, but seemed more lucid once they reached their destination. She just shrugged when officers asked how she was going to pay the fare, he said, then was put in handcuffs. She began yelling for them to be removed, the driver said. He said there was an officer on each arm as they began moving her along the sidewalk.

The woman’s take on the situation was that she had gone to the station willingly “to sort things out,” but was not received with sympathy, the decision said. She said she did not resist after being handcuffed.

Video cameras outside the station show her appearing to argue and resist as she is being handcuffed, the decision said, but the moment of injury was out of the cameras’ view.

MacDonald said in his decision video footage showed the woman “struggling forcefully, planting her feet and twisting in the officers’ grip.”

Officers said force was created when she “dropped her weight” while being escorted.

The IIO is a civilian oversight agency that examines policerelated incidents linked to death or serious harm.