IIO says use of force during Saanich arrest was 'close to the line' in terms of justification

A Saanich police uniform. (Saanich police / Facebook)

The Independent Investigations Office (IIO) of B.C. has cleared the Saanich Police Department of wrongdoing after officers deployed a police dog and fired non-lethal rounds during an arrest last year, but not without reservations.

The violent arrest occurred on May 31 when a man was helping his mother serve an eviction notice to the upstairs tenant of their home, according to the IIO.

The man, who has Asperger's Syndrome, grew angry after the tenant refused to accept the eviction notice and struck the tenant's front door with a hammer.

Police were called to the scene, and after a roughly two-hour standoff, one officer fired two non-lethal rounds from an anti-riot weapon at the man, and a police dog was deployed, biting the man's arm and causing serious injury.

The IIO spoke with officers involved in the incident, as well as civilian witnesses. Civilian video recordings, medical evidence and 911 and police radio transmissions were also examined in order to determine if police actions were justified.

The IIO says officers did a "good job" trying to negotiate with the man before the riot weapon and police dog were used.

However, "the haste with which the [riot weapon] and, particularly, the [police dog] were deployed against [the man] was unfortunate and 'close to the line' in terms of justification," reads the IIO report released Thursday.

USE OF FORCE

The IIO says the man was not threatening the officers during the standoff, but he was being non-compliant with their directions.

Some of the officers involved also told the IIO they were concerned that the man may still be able to access the hammer, since it was somewhere out of view, though the IIO says this concern was "somewhat fanciful" after the man stepped away from the tenant's front door.

After nearly two hours of negotiations, the man agreed to come down a set of stairs in front of the tenant's second-floor home.

Once at the bottom of the staircase, he was supposed to put his hands on his head and lie down on the ground, which he refused to do.

While the man refused to lie down, the IIO says it is concerned at how quickly officers resorted to using the riot weapon and police dog to take the man into custody.

"While [the man] was, categorically, not at any point 'actively resistant,' he was doggedly non-compliant," said IIO director Ronald J. MacDonald in the report.

"It is only this factor, combined with the evidence of his earlier violent use of a hammer against [the tenant's] door and car, that can be said to bring the officers’ use of force within the reach of legal justification," he said.

"While I would not call that use of force commendable, neither can I call it criminal," said MacDonald.

The IIO has closed its investigation into the matter and will not be referring charges to Crown counsel.