Regina police investigating arrest recorded on video

The Regina Police Service is investigating how some of its officers arrested a man earlier this month.

The arrest was recorded on a security camera video and posted to Facebook.

It shows three officers chasing the man and tackling him to the ground in a residential area. A fourth officer then approaches to join the melee.

“I believe it was from over the weekend,” said Regina Police Chief Evan Bray. “I was just made aware of it yesterday. We have referred it to our professional standards section and have made the Public Complaints Commission (PCC) aware of it as well.”

Speaking with 980 CJME on Tuesday morning, Bray said he doesn’t yet know many details about the incident.

“Was it a weapons call? Did the person have a weapon on them? What was their actions with the officers while the arrest was happening? Those are all questions that will get answered once the investigation is done,” he said.

The provincial PCC will oversee the investigation.

Bray said the complaint was brought forward by a concerned citizen.

“(They) had witnessed or seen the video and had come in to have a conversation with us,” Bray said. “That was enough for us to say, ‘Yes, we’ll open up an investigation.'”

The police chief said Regina police members currently don’t wear body cameras.

“I know in this situation there’s concerns about the officers’ behaviour,” he said. “The reality is, body cameras probably do as much to protect police officers as anything. Our officers day-in and day-out are going into situations where knives and guns are present.

“Being able to see the actions of the suspect, what precipitates the officers to conduct themselves or act in the way they do is oftentimes caught on the body camera.”

Were body cameras to be worn by officers, the decision would be made and finalized by the Regina Board of Police Commissioners.

Regarding the arrest recorded on video, Bray said, “There’s lots of details that led up to that. I was given a briefing yesterday. I don’t know a lot of details and I won’t get into them today. But there were things that happened before that that led up to those officers needing to make that arrest. So the investigation covers the whole story.”

As to his reaction when he first saw the video, Bray said: “It’s tough to tell in the dark. Obviously there were a few people that were involved in that arrest. It appeared to me as though maybe they were having trouble making the arrest.

“But I have no idea. Was it a weapons call? What was their actions with the officers while the arrest was happening? Those all are questions that will get answered.”

— With files from 980 CJME’s Joseph Ho