SIU clears Guelph officer after cyclist hits cruiser

Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has found no reasonable grounds to charge a Guelph Police Service officer after a 34-year-old cyclist fleeing police crashed into her cruiser and fractured his nose on July 11, but the director said her attempt to block his path was a risky tactic.

SIU Director Joseph Martino released his report on case 26-OVI-317 on Nov. 4 and closed the file. The full Director’s report says the man, referred to as the complainant, was diagnosed with a fractured nose at Guelph General Hospital.

According to the report, a citizen flagged down the officer at about 6:27 a.m. and said a man had confronted her and told her to put down her headphones and run away. Over roughly the next 10 minutes, the officer and others drove the area around Speedvale Avenue East looking for the cyclist, who refused to stop and asked why he was being followed.

The report said the man rode into the rear parking lot of a fire station and circled back across a grass area toward Riverview Drive while another officer chased him on foot. He then collided with the front driver-side of the subject officer’s cruiser. The report said she was slowing and turning away at the time. The man fell over his handlebars, struck his head on the hood, and was tackled and handcuffed behind the back.

Martino wrote that the evidence did not establish the officer deliberately struck the cyclist, but that it appeared she was trying to use her vehicle to obstruct his path. “The tactic was a risky one and the SO was obliged to proceed with caution,” he wrote, using the report’s abbreviation for subject official. He added that there was evidence the man had a chance to avoid the collision but may have been distracted by the officer chasing him on foot.

The director considered dangerous driving causing bodily harm under section 320.13(2) of the Criminal Code, which requires a marked departure from the care a reasonable person would use. “On this record, I am unable to reasonably conclude that the SO transgressed the limits of care prescribed by the criminal law,” he wrote.

The report said officers had grounds to arrest the man under section 218 of the Highway Traffic Act because he refused to stop for police while riding a bicycle. It said the officer chose not to be interviewed by the SIU or to release her notes, which is her legal right.

One footnote in the report said Guelph police’s Professional Standards Branch advised that the cruiser’s in-car camera was off or not activated at one point, possibly because the officer turned off her emergency lights, which would automatically start it. The report said the other officer’s cruiser was not parked in a position to record the collision, though video footage captured most of the incident.

The SIU is a civilian agency that investigates police incidents in Ontario involving death, serious injury, sexual assault or a gun discharge. The report does not name the officers or the cyclist, and the SIU report does not say whether the man faced any charge. Anyone affected by an SIU incident can reach its Affected Persons Program at 1-877-641-1897.

The Guelph decision follows other recent SIU findings, including its decision to clear a Toronto officer who pushed a rider off an e-bike and a Sudbury case involving a man’s fractured collarbone. The SIU also announced on Nov. 4 that it had charged an OPP officer over a Caledon East arrest injury.

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