Public faith in police at risk
New probe into arrest injuries erodes trust, expert says
A growing number of questionable incidents involving Calgary police threatens to erode public confidence in society’s sworn protectors, says a local justice expert.
“It’s death by several tiny cuts,” said Doug King, a justice professor at Mount Royal University and also a former CPS research and planning analyst.
With cellphones in hand and a growing suspicion of police, the message from Calgarians is pretty clear, King said — the concept of community policing needs to be updated for 2016, a challenge facing CPS and its public overseer, the Calgary police commission.
This weekend, it was announced two officers have been relieved of duty and two more reassigned to desk jobs after a suspect was seriously injured during an arrest.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team has been called in to investigate the July 30 incident, after dashboard cam footage from a police car was discovered.
About 8:45 p.m. that evening, one officer attempted to pull over a vehicle in a parking lot in the 6700 block of Macleod Trail. The driver of the suspect vehicle is alleged to have hopped out and fled on foot, prompting the first officer to give chase and several other officers to join in.
Police say the suspect received several serious injuries during the ensuing arrest, which was at least partly captured by the video.
“Those incidents are reviewed. As a result of that review, in-car digital video was obtained (and) as a result of concerns (around) that video we re-notified the director of law enforcement and ASIRT was committed to primary on the file,” said Deputy Chief Paul Cook.
“At the first instance that we were aware of the in-car digital video and it was reviewed, within an hour of that we made a notification to ASIRT.
“I believe it took several weeks before we were aware that the video existed.”
A senior member and a junior member have been relieved of their duties with pay — their status will be reviewed as the investigation progresses — and a senior member and a junior member have been reassigned to desk jobs.
Calgary police union boss Howard Burns said it’s always concerning when allegations are levelled against members, but stressed that as of now they are just that — allegations.
“One would think that the video would be helpful to determine what exactly happened — hopefully it will give an accurate account of what actually occurred,” said Burns, who has not yet seen the video.
“My understanding is it shows the two initial officers — the two who were relieved with pay — and the second two came later and assisted the first two,” said Burns.
Cook couldn’t give much detail as to the arrested man’s injuries, except to say they’re significant enough to warrant investigating under the Police Act.
Although the man might still face charges, Cook said police are still consulting with the Crown on that possibility.
This came days after it was made public that the officer who shot and killed Anthony Heffernan in a hotel room 17 moths ago would not face charges because the Crown determined there was not a reasonable likelihood of conviction, despite ASIRT suggesting charges were warranted.
And it’s only a few months removed from an officer being fired for a 2008 incident in which he crashed into a cab and injured the driver during a high-speed chase, then lied about it. The same officer was one of several caught up in a corruption scandal.
Another case saw an officer with unresolved allegations against him being promoted to deputy chief and a pair of videos showing rough arrests reaching social media over the summer.
“For a portion of Calgary’s population, their perception of the police has been damaged,” said King.
“Another incident like the one that we’ve seen (most recently) just kind of serves to reinforce the perception that some have that there is something amiss with the Calgary Police Service, right now.
“It’s serious, and I hope that the Calgary Police Service recognizes that erosion in public perception has started.”
Still, King said, Calgary is a far cry from some cities in the United States, where tension between police and the public have reached a hostile and often-violent boiling point.
But some Calgarians’ fears are fuelled by what’s going on down there, King said.
City councillor and former beat officer Sean Chu said he believes police are held appropriately accountable whenever incidents such as these do occur.
“When you hear something like that, and you used to be part of it, you don’t feel good about it,” said Chu.
“I’m concerned, but then at the same time I think, thank goodness we have the system that we have. “The system is working.” Arrests go sideways, Chu said, and are often unpredictable — he remembers one of his first in his 21 years on the job in which four officers were required to control an impaired female driver weighing all of 100 pounds.