An administrative review conducted by Northwest Territories RCMP on one of their own officers has cleared the Mountie after a man was injured, allegedly while being arrested in Yellowknife earlier this year.
RCMP stated that the review was conducted by a commissioned NWT RCMP officer, an inspector, who was “independent of the involved incident.”
Back on February 9, Randy Allen, an Indigenous man in his 30s, was found by the officer intoxicated at the wheel of a vehicle behind Crestview Apartments on 52 Ave.
Allen has since been convicted of impaired driving that night.
His lawyer told CKLB after Allen had appeared in court that Allen was roughed up by the officer after he was pulled from the vehicle.
She added that it was done while the officer’s dashcam video recorder was turned off.
The lawyer also said it was not the first time her client was roughed up by a Yellowknife RCMP officer.
Medical records reportedly showed that after the February incident, Allen was found to have a broken rib.
It’s been reported that the lawyer says the arresting officer kneeled on Allen.
Allen has previous convictions for resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.
RCMP say they had no idea what happened that night until they heard about it from the media who had been covering Allen in court.
They then launched an independent review
They issued a response Thursday upon completion of the administrative review.
“On the evening of February 19, an RCMP member located a stolen vehicle in the city of Yellowknife, and observed what was believed to be an intoxicated individual behind the wheel. Safety of the man, the officer and the public required quick action to remove the person from the vehicle, to prevent potential flight. The RCMP member involved did not activate their lights and siren, so as not to startle the driver into possible action. The video recording device is activated by turning on lights and siren or manually. The device was activated manually as soon as the member was able to secure the person and place them into the police vehicle. The Review finds that while it is possible the man could have been injured while being removed from the vehicle and taken into custody, it was unable to determine when the injury occurred.”
Inspector Alex Laporte is the officer in charge of the Yellowknife detachment.
“The intent of an Independent Officer Review is to determine if the RCMP’s policies and procedures were followed. In this case, they were,” Laporte states in a news release. “We thoroughly reviewed the incident and find the officer acted reasonably and took immediate action to protect the public, the individual and themselves from the potential threat of a stolen vehicle being put in motion by a possibly intoxicated driver. With their actions, the officer ensured a safe resolution to a fluid and risky situation.”
Mounties say they could not tell the public whether the officer remained on duty while his actions were being reviewed because of the Privacy Act and internal RCMP procedures and protocols.
They then said they could not share those procedures ands protocols with CKLB.
They have also never named the officer.
This is the second time this month that a Yellowknife RCMP officer has been cleared after citizens were injured during interactions with them.