Mike on Crime

By James Turner
Winnipeg Free Press

The Winnipeg police officer or officers involved in an incident where a photograph was taken of a doughnut shop employee handling a Taser could face Criminal Code charges, a police spokeswoman said Monday.

Const. Jacqueline Chaput confirmed the professional standards unit has opened an investigation into the incident, which saw 24-year-old Andrew Harvey pose with one of the weapons outside a Tim Hortons store in which he was pretending to light a cigarette with it.

The photo, along with another showing Harvey posing in the driver’s seat of a police cruiser ¬ — were posted to the Facebook website.

Chaput said allegations of wrongdoing are as yet unproven.

“We need to find out what happened, who was involved and the circumstances surrounding the incident.” she said, adding investigators would also have to interview people.

“Further down the road, based on what the investigation reveals, at that point (investigators will) be able to determine whether they’ll be any charges or not,” Chaput said.

A Taser is a prohibited firearm so an officer could face weapons-related charges.

Police refused to comment on specifics of the incident.

“I don’t know where they’re at (or) if they’ve identified anyone other than the individual in the photographs,” Chaput said.

Investigators would want to interview Harvey, she added, but given his tight-lipped stance so far, they may find him to be an un-cooperative subject.

“There is no way they can get me to say what officer gave it to me so I’m not going to get into trouble at all about that and neither is the officer,” Harvey told the Free Press Friday.

He did not return repeated calls on Monday, and the pictures on the pro-Taser Facebook page where they had had been posted have been removed.

Chaput was adamant the service is treating the probe seriously.

“We will actually probably go further into our investigation to ensure that every single aspect of it is covered…there’s no way that something like this would just go away. There’s serious accountability issues here,” she said. “If it resulted in Criminal Code charges, that’s something we would be advising the public of,” she said.

News of the alleged misuse of the police Taser comes just months after a report from police chief Keith McCaskill to city hall that showed he’s satisfied officers receive adequate training on how to use the devices, which are classified as an “intermediate” use-of-force response.

This means they fall into the same category as pepper-spray or batons.

Police used their Tasers 173 times in 2007, including the number of times they were used as a coercive device and not fired.