SIU clears Hamilton officer after cruiser window smashed

Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has found no reasonable grounds to charge a Hamilton Police Service officer over the June 20 arrest of a 44-year-old man who had smashed the window of a police cruiser with a crowbar, according to a director’s report released Oct. 14.

SIU Director Joseph Martino concluded the force used was legally justified and closed the file without charges. The man was diagnosed at hospital with a fractured nose and a possible concussion, the report said. Hamilton police notified the SIU on June 21.

According to the report, officers were sent to the area of King Street East at about 8 p.m. on June 20 after reports that a man had broken into a parked police cruiser. The man had smashed the front passenger window of the vehicle with a crowbar, entered it briefly and walked away. The report said the reason is unknown.

The first officer on scene chased the man on foot, ordered him to the ground and forced him down front-first. The man was still holding the crowbar in his left hand, which the officer mistook for a knife. The officer delivered several knee strikes to the man’s right side. A second officer arrived, punched the man in the back and kneed him in the right side. Moments later the man’s arms were controlled behind his back and he was handcuffed. The report said no further force was used after that.

Martino wrote that the officer was within her rights to arrest the man for mischief under section 430 of the Criminal Code. He said the officer had cause to fear the man was a threat to public safety, including her own, and was entitled to take him to the ground when he did not comply.

The director described the crowbar as a serious weapon in its own right and easily mistaken for a knife in the heat of the moment. He wrote that he could not reasonably conclude the strikes were unwarranted, given the need to control the man immediately and stop him from bringing a weapon to bear.

Under section 25 of the Criminal Code, police are protected from criminal liability for force that is reasonably necessary in carrying out their duties. Martino wrote that while the man’s injuries were incurred in the altercation that marked his arrest, there were no reasonable grounds to believe they were attributable to unlawful conduct. The officer declined to be interviewed by the SIU, which is her legal right, and did not release her notes.

The SIU does not name the people involved in its investigations. Its decision addresses only whether a crime was committed and does not examine other questions about police policy or training. The report is available in English on the SIU website, with a French translation to follow.

The decision follows a string of recent SIU reports, including the clearing of a Toronto officer after bean bag rounds were fired at a hospital and a Greater Sudbury arrest that left a man with a fractured rib.

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