3317 replies to this topic

[pontcanna]

Six officer-involved shootings on Vancouver Island focus of investigation

Jun. 14, 2022

Monday’s fatal shooting is the third officer-involved fatal shooting in Campbell River in less than a year, according to Ron MacDonald, chief civilian director of the Independent Investigations Office of BC.

“It is unusual to have this many officer involved shootings in a community the size of Campbell River. It’s hard to pinpoint why that happens. It could just be chance and coincidence.”

Six active investigations by IIO are underway on Vancouver Island, the three in Campbell River, a fatal shooting Sept. 12 in Victoria, another on February 27, 2021 on Meares Island, a shooting resulting in serious injury in Ucluelet on May 8 of last year, and the shooting in Campbell River last summer.

28-year-old Julien Jones died after he was fatally shot by police on Meares Island February 2021.

Tofino RCMP shot and seriously wounded a woman in Ucluelet back in May 2021.

During the July 8 incident in Campbell River, a police dog was fatally wounded.

The September shooting in Victoria involved a man with a knife near Mayfair Mall.

More: https://www.cheknews...gation-1049753/

 

[Victoria Watcher]

‘What they did was violent’: Witnesses decry VicPD treatment of mentally ill Black man

 

 

Last week, police were called to check on Michael, a 61-year-old Black immigrant from Grenada. What neighbours saw contradicts police reports about what happened next.

 

 

 

https://www.capitald...health-response

 

 

 

According to the official statement, the man barricaded himself inside an apartment, refused to talk to police and “comply with police direction,” and “encountered officers with improvised weapons.” They did not specify the nature of the weapons he allegedly confronted police with, but said the man did not surrender even after they shot him with an ARWEN plastic bullet. They forcibly took him into custody about five and a half hours after first arriving at the apartment. 

 

VicPD has not responded to Capital Daily’s requests for comment and clarification despite attempts to reach them over the phone, via email, and in person. 

 

However, witnesses to the hours-long incident and neighbours who knew the man say the amount of force used by police—including an armoured tank, K9 unit, tear gas, and a loud distraction grenade—was disproportionate, and dispute some key claims VicPD made in their official statement. 

 

_____________________

 

After about 30 minutes, several more squad cars showed up, along with the department’s $320,000 armoured tank. Bochar estimates there were about 10 to 12 officers in total, plus a K9 unit that arrived later in the day. 

 

_____________________

 

She went to leave a note in Michael’s apartment building, asking that someone contact her or pass her phone number to Michael so she can bring him the care package once he’s back from the hospital. Inside his building, she encountered a neighbour who told her Michael had been evicted.

 

Capital Daily attempted to verify this by contacting the property manager in charge of the building. When asked whether Michael had been evicted, they said, “Until anything happens, I can’t say a thing right now.” 

 

In the absence of a response from VicPD, we asked Victoria Mayor and police board co-chair Lisa Helps whether there are any programs or funding in place to support those who experience harm or damage as a result of a police wellness check. 

“I don’t know,” Helps said. 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 15 June 2022 - 06:51 AM.

[Nparker]

Capital Daily. 'Nuff said.

[pontcanna]

No Incidents Of Violence Or Vandalism Reported With Groups Of Youths Downtown For Two-Week Period

 

Date: Friday, June 17, 2022 - File: #22-15345

 

Victoria, BC – VicPD’s Youth Violence and Vandalism Interdiction and Engagement Response Team has seen a significant decline in calls for violence or vandalism associated with groups of youths gathering in downtown Victoria. There have been no reported incidents of violence or vandalism associated with groups of youth gathering downtown for a two-week period.

 

For a nine-week period, officers responded to calls for service for violent offences and vandalism related to large groups of youths gathering in downtown Victoria and consuming drugs and alcohol. This response resulted in 60 investigations and 24 arrests ranging from public intoxication to possession of weapons, assault, assault with a weapon, and mischief. These include:

• A random attack in which a 70-year-old man was swarmed by a group of 25 youths. He was left with significant, but non-life-threatening facial injuries after being kicked, punched and spat on;
• A random attack on a couple in which a woman was swarmed, followed by a group of youths, and choked;
• A random attack on an unhouse couple that saw a youth struck in the face with a flashlight;
• The swarming of a VicPD officer as he arrested a youth armed with bear spray, knives and wearing a balaclava. The officer was responding to a call for multiple youths engaged in a “bear spray fight”;
• Tickets issued to an older male who purchased alcohol for underage youth;
• Vandalism, including significant damage to a Vespa scooter, several broken windows in various downtown buildings and graffiti;
• Seizure of weapons including significant amounts of bear spray, pepper spray and numerous knives; and
• A random attack on a couple, who fled to their vehicle, which was surrounded and damaged. A youth was sent to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries in this incident.

The significant majority of youths involved were from across Greater Victoria.

 

Officers and staff from across VicPD, including the Community Services Division (CSD), Patrol Division, Investigative Services Division (ISD) and Community Engagement Division (CED) all responded. The response included direct outreach and engagement with partners including the Saanich Police Department, Oak Bay Police, the Central Saanich Police Service, West Shore RCMP and Sidney/North Saanich RCMP, as well as school districts across the regions including SD61, SD62 and SD63, private schools, municipalities, youth probation, community groups, parents, families and youths themselves to foster short, medium and long-term solutions. Our response included a series of #VicPDLive tweetalongs on our VicPD Canada Twitter account.

 

Drugs and a knife seized from a youth during an arrest

A “box cutter” style knife seized from a youth

A shattered window. Two youths were arrested in this incident and face recommended mischief charges.

 

[pontcanna]

‘Fairly standard application of force’: B.C. IIO rules in favour of officer who kicked, kneed suicidal man

Jun. 17, 2022

B.C.’s Independent Investigations Office has found an RCMP officer’s use of force was “fairly standard” in her response to a mental health call for a suicidal man.

On Aug. 19, 2020, the mother informed RCMP that her son was facing charges of assault and attempted assault and had a record of firearm offences, uttering threats and criminal harassment. She also noted he had previously made suicide threats and spent time in a psychiatric ward.

Another civilian witness told RCMP the man had told her a very specific suicide plan, and RCMP officers determined they had enough evidence to apprehend him under the Mental Health Act.

The civilian witness who told RCMP of the man’s plan said the officers took him to the ground “very quickly” and that an officer put her knee on the side of his neck, then kneed him in the left side when they were struggling to put handcuffs on him.

On Aug. 21, he was taken back to hospital after overdosing again, where he was “screaming out in pain and clutching his abdomen.” He received emergency surgery, where he was found to have a five-centimeter tear in his stomach which was determined to have happened within the previous 30 hours.

“This would be a fairly standard application of force by an officer aiming to gain control over a resistant subject’s arms and hands for the purpose of handcuffing, and would not generally be viewed as an application of excessive force in most circumstances.”

 

More: https://www.cheknews...al-man-1050509/

 

Full IIO report: https://iiobc.ca/app...rm-2021-028.pdf

 

[Victoria Watcher]

It’s well known that Seattle police are struggling to respond to 911 calls in a speedy manner. But the notion that “the cops aren’t coming” has become such a routine of city life that they’ve created a new way of tracking their nonresponsiveness.

It’s called the “Z protocol.”

I don’t know why they picked the letter “Z.” Maybe because it’s the last stop, the end of the road?




What follows is a pretty interesting story:

https://www.seattlet...for-that/?amp=1




Now, with police ranks depleted, and at least a portion of Seattle’s political class hostile to the idea of policing, they seem to be instituting white-flag waving as a regular part of the system.

The white flag is going to be displayed in a data table at future briefings.

After hearing about the Z protocol for nonresponse, and how response times have ballooned for both serious and petty crimes, one council member was reduced to pleading.

“For those officers listening in, please stay in Seattle,” said Councilmember Alex Pedersen during the hearing. “Please … we need you in Seattle to help bring these response times down.”

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 18 June 2022 - 11:41 AM.

[Sparky]

^ Paywall.

[Victoria Watcher]

Huh. None for me.

[pontcanna]

I can read it OK too.

[pontcanna]

-Danny Parker was something of a local legend back in the day...

 

Retired officers call for review of undercover training amid allegations of misbehaviour

• Times Colonist
• 19 Jun 2022

A program that trains police officers to become undercover operators should be reviewed in light of disturbing allegations of misconduct, says a pair of retired Victoria police officers.

 

"The program has been allowed to create undercover operators for years, decades even, without checks and balances,” said former staff sergeant Matt Waterman. “When was the last time senior police administrators reviewed their program to ensure they are within the ethical boundaries we’re comfortable with?”

 

On Monday, B.C.’s police complaint commissioner announced an investigation into the actions of 19 officers from eight municipal police departments, including Victoria and Saanich, who attended an undercover operator training course on May 2 in Vancouver. The probe will be conducted by Manitoba’s Independent Investigation Unit, the commissioner said in a statement.

 

Over the years, the Victoria Police Department has sent a number of officers on the course, said Waterman, former executive director of the police union. The mission of undercover operators is to get someone to confess or to get enough information to ensure a conviction.

 

“There are decades of other undercover officers who have gotten away with this. I’m not convinced this crew is the only one that’s done something untoward.”

 

Dan Parker, who was an undercover police officer for 20 years, said if the allegations are true, the program should be reviewed. “And those people have been watching too many movies and too many TV shows because it just isn’t that way at all.”

 

Parker, with his long hair and bushy moustache, slipped easily into the drug world back in 1982. Without any training, he was assigned to work surreptitiously and gather information.

 

The first day on the job, he went to the Bastion Pub, sat down at a table with eight people who were drug users and ordered a beer. “If you spend enough time with your mouth shut and your ears open, you become just part of the furniture,” he said.

 

Eventually, Parker took a drug investigator course and a drug investigator supervisors course at the Ottawa Police College. Under his direction, Victoria police conducted successful undercover drug operations where traffickers received significant jail sentences.

 

Parker said he can’t think of any reason why anyone would think they would have to behave in the manner alleged to prove they’re not a police officer.

 

Parker recalls doing something “really stupid” — he won’t say what — when he was working undercover in Nanaimo in a bar full of Hells Angels.

 

“And they got up and left right away. They didn’t want to be any part of what I was doing. They don’t want that kind of activity around them. It draws attention to them and that’s not what they want.”

 

A good undercover officer has to be good with people, he said, adding criminals love to talk about themselves, so all an undercover officer has to do is listen.

 

“All you have to do is treat people like you are interested in them and really be interested in them. Just don’t fake it. Be interested in what they are saying and what their life is. And any bad person over a period of time will tell you anything you want to hear.”

 

More: https://www.timescol...haviour-5494917

 

 

[Victoria Watcher]

^ "Bastion Pub"?

 

Anybody know what what that is/was?

[Sparky]

Wasn't that the pub in the basement of the Churchill?

 

I can't quite remember as the 70's are still a bit of a blur.

[pontcanna]

^ "Bastion Pub"?

 

Anybody know what what that is/was?

 

Wasn't it The Churchill in the old days?

[Victoria Watcher]

A Google search only brings up... that article.

 

Not sure there was such a thing.

 

I suppose he might have meant the "Bastion Square Pub".

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 19 June 2022 - 05:12 AM.

[Sparky]

Huh. None for me.

 

[Mike K.]

A Google search only brings up... that article.

Not sure there was such a thing.

I suppose he might have meant the "Bastion Square Pub".

It was undercover.

[Mike K.]

Odd, eh? I can’t recall recently reading the ST and I got the paywall as well, and it says I’ve reached the limit of free reads. Huh?

[pontcanna]

IIO clears Port Alberni RCMP officers in incident where woman died soon after they left her home

 

Jun. 20, 2022, CHEK News

The Independent Investigations Office has cleared three Port Alberni RCMP officers of any wrongdoing after a woman died shortly after they had been at her home three years ago.

The ruling stems from an incident that took place on April 20, 2020, when Port Alberni RCMP officers responded to a home at an undisclosed address after someone requested a wellness check on a woman.

According to the IIO report, the woman knocked on the door of a nearby neighbour’s home and told one person, listed as CW1, that she thought her boyfriend and children had been murdered. The woman also reportedly told the CW1 that she had been stabbed, but CW1 couldn’t find any injuries. A second witness who lived at the home, listed as CW2, reported that the woman appeared to be “on something.”

Shortly afterwards, CW1 called 911 and requested a wellness check, which resulted in three Port Alberni RCMP officers attending the home. The report notes that during the 911 call, the dispatcher spoke with the woman, who told them she had “been drinking all day” but did not disclose any drug use.

At around 6:20 p.m. that day, the officers arrived focused on the whereabouts of the woman’s children and quickly determined that they were safe with the woman’s boyfriend, according to the report.

After spending time with the woman, who told the officers that while she had taken drugs in the past, she did not take any that day and had just taken a sleeping pill and was tired, the report notes.

Eventually, the woman appeared to calm down and after determining that the woman would be fine, the officers left before 7 p.m., according to the report. However, shortly after leaving, she was found dead by her boyfriend who had returned home shortly after 7 p.m., the report says.

 

More: https://www.cheknews...r-home-1051825/

 

IIO Report: https://iiobc.ca/app...th-2020-070.pdf

 

[pontcanna]

Indigenous Peoples Day | The Story Behind VicPD’s Indigenous Heritage Crest

 

Date: Tuesday, June 21, 2022

 

Victoria, BC – Today VicPD is recognizing and supporting National Indigenous Peoples Day by sharing the story behind our new VicPD Indigenous Heritage Crest.

 

The VicPD Indigenous Heritage Crest was designed by acclaimed educator and master carver Yux’wey’lupton, a true visionary guide and knowledge-keeper, known widely by his English name, Clarence “Butch” Dick.  Butch was also instrumental in helping design our VicPD crest, which prominently features the Sta’qeya, or Coast Salish wolf, as a way to represent our connection to the traditional Lekwungen territories where we live and work.

 

Yux’wey’lupton, also known as “Butch” Dick, VicPD Indigenous Engagement Team member Det. Cst. Sandi Haney and Cst. Cam MacIntyre at the unveiling of VicPD’s Indigenous Heritage Crest banner

 

VicPD’s Indigenous Engagement Team of First Nations and Metis members who have ancestral ties to the Cree, Kaska, Dena, Mi’kmaq, Mohawk, Naskapi and Ojibwe nations created the crest to honour the Indigenous heritage of those who serve our communities as VicPD o­fficers, civilian employees, special municipal constables, jail staff, and volunteers.

 

 

A banner with VicPD’s Indigenous Heritage Crest and canvases of the symbol are on public display in VicPD’s Hall of Honour.

 

 

[pontcanna]

INFORMATION BULLETIN
Independent Investigations Office
For Immediate Release

 

Case: #2022-142 

Case Status: Open - Investigation in Progress 

 

June 24, 2022 

Surrey, B.C. – The Independent Investigations Office (IIO) of BC is investigating an incident in Campbell River in which one man has died.

At approximately 10:45 pm on Thursday, June 23, officers arrested a man for breach of his probation and brought him into custody at the Campbell River RCMP detachment. According to RCMP, a guard found the man unresponsive in his cell at approximately 11:00 pm.

The man was transported to hospital, intubated and admitted to ICU, where he has since died.

The IIO asks anyone with relevant information about this incident to contact the witness line toll free at 1-855-446-8477 or via the contact form at iiobc.ca.