The Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO) has ruled that a Whistler RCMP officer was justified in her use of force during the takedown of a woman who ignored commands to get off her bike in a pedestrian zone and resisted arrest.
The woman also suffered a broken ankle.
According to the ruling released this month by Chief Civilian Director of the IIO, Ronald J. MacDonald, in the early hours of Aug. 17, 2019, the intoxicated woman was repeatedly riding a bicycle past RCMP officers on foot patrol in the pedestrian-only area of Whistler Village.
The woman was reportedly cycling at high speed and endangering pedestrians, "riding the bike absolutely wild," according to one of the attending officers. A male officer decided to stop her, and moved into the middle of the pathway. He yelled at her several times to "Get off the bike," but the woman ignored the commands and swerved around him. The next time she rode near, the officer said he grabbed her handlebars, told her to get off and that he was seizing the bike.
The male officer got into a struggle with the woman, at which point a female officer came over to assist, pulling the woman in one direction, while the male officer pulled the bike in the other.
The female officer recalled the woman disregarding several commands to stop and twice riding directly at the officers. The woman was also told she was under arrest and refused to provide identification. By this time, the officer said other intoxicated people on the scene were becoming "hostile" and, concerned the situation might escalate, she decided to handcuff the woman, who resisted physically. In order to get control, the officer said she used a hip toss/tripping manoeuvre to take the woman to the ground. After being handcuffed, the woman complained of pain in her ankle. She was later diagnosed with a fracture, and said she was "pushed and hurried" at the detachment by the male officer who had arrested her. She claimed it was 20 minutes after being lodged in cells that an officer brought her an ice pack. At the woman's request, police called her an ambulance when she was released in the morning.
In the woman's account of the incident, she acknowledged hearing someone telling her to slow down, but said she could not operate the brakes, as she was not familiar with the borrowed bike. She claimed she was told, "You are going down" and "We will break your leg." She remembered being taken to the ground and thought she had been tasered before being handcuffed. She also admitted to being "really drunk" at the time.
A civilian witness, one of three who spoke to investigators, said he saw a female who appeared "drunk" riding a mountain bike around the square, who "might have" resisted and pulled away from officers' attempts to secure the bike. He said the female officer grabbed the woman by the neck or shoulder area and took her to the ground. He said he did not hear any threats made by the officers.
A different witness described the incident similarly, except that he recalled there being at least five officers on top of the woman when she was taken to the ground. He considered it a case of "police brutality."
Another witness also recalled "four or five" officers running at the woman and tackling her. He said he heard one officer say, "If you don't come off, I will break your leg." He considered the officers' actions "an abuse of power."
In his ruling, MacDonald said a threat to break the woman's leg "would be troubling if it appeared reliable," but that given that two of the witnesses were "clearly intoxicated at the time," along with one suffering from a concussion stemming from a separate altercation earlier in the night, their recollection was placed in doubt. The accuracy of these witnesses' account was further questioned by the fact they described four or five officers taking the woman down, rather than just two. The other witness appeared to provide investigators with a more accurate account, MacDonald wrote, and he did not recall any threat being made.
According to the ruling, the officers acted lawfully in their attempts to stop the woman from riding a bike around the pedestrian zone. "There is no ambiguity in the evidence on this point, and [the woman] acknowledges having been told to stop," MacDonald wrote.
He added there "seems little doubt that [the woman] was resisting both officers to a significant degree, and [the female officer] was justified in deciding to control her using handcuffs. It is likely that [the woman's] ankle injury occurred when [the female officer] took her to the ground, but that manoeuvre too was justified, given the continued physical resistance displayed."
The IIO is a civilian-led police oversight agency tasked with investigating incidents of death or serious harm that may have been the result of the actions of a police officer, whether on or off duty.
