Two Elk Point, AB, RCMP officers who allegedly pointed Taser weapons at a civilian employee will not be facing charges, despite charged being recommended by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT). The case was brought to ASIRT, which investigated the officers for the potential improper usage of conducted energy weapons (CEW). The affected person was a civilian employee at the Elk Point RCMP detachment from early 2018 to late 2019. During that time, “officers had pointed their CEWs at her,” which she said happened “multiple times,” a report released from ASIRT on Friday states.One incident In the summer of 2019 is described in the report. She saw one officer pointing the CEW at her and thought a second officer had as well. “She knew they had pointed it at her because she saw the red laser from the CEW, used for targeting, on her,” ASIRT wrote. Another employee was present to witness this. She was “unable to provide other dates when the CEW was pointed at her, but said it happened multiple times. She did not recall specific details about these incidents,” ASIRT said, adding she did not think the officers intended to discharge their weapons at her."CEWs are “prohibited weapons,” ASIRT wrote, which can stun a person with electricity through either direct contact with skin, or “it can fire prongs at a person from a distance and then deliver the stun through those prongs.” Potential charges for officers misusing a CEW include careless use of a prohibited weapon, assault with a weapon and threat, ASIRT wrote. “If there is a loaded cartridge in a CEW, the charges would be different “since pointing a CEW with no cartridge in it from a distance at someone cannot cause them harm,” but “a person can still be threatened by a CEW without a cartridge.” “Police officers are permitted to possess or use them only in the course of or for the purpose of their duties.” Within its investigation of the matter, ASIRT interviewed the two officers in question, seven other officers, the affected civilian employee and five other civilian employees. The watchdog also obtained and analyzed “all relevant radio communications.” The first officer gave ASIRT a written statement but refused to answer follow-up questions, relying on his right to remain silent. He said he never pointed the CEW at the female employee. The second officer gave two written statements and answered follow-up questions in an interview. He said he never pointed the CEW at the employee, but in the past, he and other officers had pointed their CEWs at each other as a joke. Whenever they did this, he said, there was never a cartridge inside the weapon. The civilian witness confirmed it was common for officers to point their CEWs at each other at the detachment as a “joke.” She had seen the first officer do this before, but had never seen the second officer do this. She said it was always “done as a joke and was never threatening.”ASIRT concluded “there were reasonable grounds to believe that an offence may have been committed” by the first officer so, as the Police Act dictates, referred the matter to the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service (ACPS). It was up to ACPS to determine if charges should be laid. On July 6 2021, the ACPS “recommended no charges,” ASIRT said, emphasizing the two organizations are “bound by different standards when assessing the viability of charges arising out of an investigation.” “ASIRT, as the investigative body, applies a Criminal Code standard that determines whether reasonable grounds exist to believe that an offence has been committed,” the report states. “ACPS, based on its internal policy regarding criminal prosecutions applies a standard which examines whether there is a reasonable likelihood of conviction arising out of the evidence and whether it is in the public interest to proceed with a prosecution.”“In this case, while ASIRT found reasonable grounds to believe an offence had been committed, for the reasons provided in their opinion, the ACPS did not recommend that charges be laid.”“Pointing a CEW at a staff member is not in the course of their duties, whether for a joke or not,” ASIRT wrote. “CEWs are prohibited weapons in Canada and must be treated with care. While the evidence gathered in this investigation was insufficient to support specific criminal charges, there is evidence of misuse of CEWs in Elk Point detachment.”“Such matters are outside of the scope of ASIRT and are more properly dealt with by the RCMP internally.”
