SASKATOON – The Saskatoon Police Service says it is investigating a report that an officer dropped a young man off outside the city overnight in frigid temperatures.
But the man involved may not be able to piece together all of the details.
Police say a woman called early Tuesday morning saying the 19-year-old man was driven out of the city and dropped off sometime Monday evening. The man said he was then forced to walk home.
Temperatures dipped to -25C overnight with the wind chill.
“Professional standards launched an investigation despite (the fact) that a formal complaint has not yet been filed and we’re currently attempting to contact both the woman and the 19-year-old male in hopes that they’ll record a formal complaint,” police spokeswoman Kelsie Fraser said.
She said if the man and woman are not comfortable talking directly to Saskatoon police they could go to the provincial public complaints commission or the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations.
Police said they have already checked the global positioning systems that are in all marked patrol cars and none were outside the city at the time mentioned in the call.
Fraser said the devices can’t be altered.
“The officers have no ability to control what is recorded or turn off the GPS locator in their vehicle,” she said.
Police said they will check in-car camera video to determine if the man was ever inside a patrol car. In-car video is automatically activated when the back door of a patrol car is opened.
The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network reported that the alleged victim doesn’t remember what happened.
The young man, identified as Drayton Bull, told APTN that he was intoxicated when he left his brother’s house. Bull said he remembers a police car going by and trying to hide so they wouldn’t pick him up.
Bull said he blacked out several times, but remembers a man in black pants behind him. He woke up outside his father’s house.
He was taken to hospital and treated for a concussion.
The allegation has caused a frenzy on social media.
Some people who posted messages on the Saskatoon police Facebook page suggested racism was involved and pointed to the fact that Saskatoon police officers have been accused in the past of dropping people off outside city limits in freezing weather on what have become known as “starlight tours.”
Two Saskatoon constables were convicted of unlawful confinement for dropping off Darrell Night, an aboriginal man, in freezing weather in 2000. A public inquiry into the 1990 death of Neil Stonechild found that the aboriginal teen had been in police custody right before he ended up frozen to death on the city’s outskirts with handcuff marks on his nose and wrists.
Other postings on the Facebook page suggested the latest allegations are just rumours.
One pointed to a story out of Manitoba earlier this month where an aboriginal man admitted he lied about police officers dropping him off on the outskirts of Brandon and forced him to walk back in the cold.
Fraser said police are trying to get accurate information and are treating the complaint seriously.
“The thing with social media is that things can kind of fly off the handle and escalate very quickly,” she said.
“As a police service … we want to make sure that we’re able to provide that information for them to make an educated opinion on this and that’s really all we can control.”
-With files from APTN.
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