No charges against man in arrest caught on video

Saskatoon police say a man whose arrest was captured on video and shared on social media this month was not charged or ticketed since the arresting officer found there may have been “cognitive issues involved,” a spokesperson says.

The 35-second video clip of the Nov. 1 arrest, which was recorded by a bystander, has been viewed on Facebook more than 297,000 times and shared more than 4,200 times since it was posted.

It shows a man's arrest on 22nd Street West following a foot chase and ends when an officer punches the man in the head while the man is on the ground.

Saskatoon police previously told the Starphoenix the incident would be reviewed by a supervisor and use-offorce committee under standard procedures. Police had responded to a call about a “suspicious” person.

The incident remains under review.

A police spokesperson said in an email to the Starphoenix that it was initially a patrol response and then its Police and Crisis Team became involved.

Saskatoon has three PACTS, which pair a police officer and a crisis worker from the Saskatoon Crisis and Intervention Service to respond to calls involving mental health and addictions. A PACT response is meant to prevent people in crisis from ending up in a hospital's emergency department or in police detention.

University of Saskatchewan assistant professor of sociology Scott Thompson said due to limited resources and having the PACTS “embedded” within the police, there are still struggles to ensure each of these cases get the attention and response they deserve.

In other jurisdictions, there are separate numbers people can call to reach similar teams as an alternative to calling police, he said. Thompson added that policing is a difficult job and part of that difficulty is being trained for the many aspects of the job; their training in this area is just a small piece of what they do.

“Stories like the one that we had where police are put into these distressing situations and there's a violent outcome, that turns a lot of people away from calling the police as a response to what they're seeing as mental health emergencies,” he said.

Thompson added it's also important to look at “upstream solutions” early on, and when there are discussions about the expense of creating additional shelters or these mental health teams, we must also look at the incarceration and criminal justice costs when deciding on the best solution.

A recent incident in Mississauga, Ont., has drawn concern about policing responses to calls involving people with special needs.

Peel Regional Police tasered a 19-year-old non-verbal man with autism after they received a “suspicious person” call. The Canadian Press reported Peel police said the man wasn't responding to them when they arrived at the scene, and his identity and condition weren't known to officers.

The man had apparently left his family's house unnoticed and his father had previously added him to the police's vulnerable persons registry to prevent something like this from happening, The Canadian Press reported, adding that police didn't answer questions as to whether or not they had used the system at the time.