A day after Edmonton police said a woman who was shoved to the ground while allegedly brandishing a knife would not face charges, there are calls for more accountability and transparency when it comes to the city’s police force.
“All of this could have been avoided had they had the dash cams, had they had body cams that they could have released, you know?” said Judith Gale with The Bear Clan Patrol Edmonton Beaver Hills House, a community-based organization that provides food and support to vulnerable Edmontonians.
“We really need to start holding our police and security and peace officers accountable.
“We’ve got to keep our brothers and sisters safe. They have no other place to go.”
Last Thursday afternoon, a 12-second video was recorded by a bystander of an interaction with a woman and an Edmonton Police Service member on 100 Street between 105 and 106 avenues.
According to both the person who took the video and Edmonton police, two women on the street across from the Hope Mission in Chinatown were having an argument when police were flagged down.
Police said the woman was armed with a knife, was a member of a gang, refused to drop it and attempted to walk away from the officer.
It’s at this point in the video when she was shoved from behind by the officer and fell to the ground.
EPS said the knife in question was seized by police while the woman was arrested for possession of a weapon dangerous to the public.
Edmonton police said it obtained CCTV from the area that confirmed the woman was holding a knife, but on Monday refused to release that video. Global News reached out again on Tuesday but as of publishing, had not heard back.
Gale is angry Edmonton police won’t release that video proving there was a knife involved and said the situation shows police, peace officers and security guards need to wear body cameras.
“I’m sorry to say, but they can’t be trusted. But a video from many different angles and stuff can be trusted, in my opinion.”
Edmonton criminal defence lawyer Tom Engel, whose practice regularly involves law enforcement issues and is an outspoken critic of poor conduct, believes the officer got caught behaving badly and now the force is attempting to cover that up.
“I don’t buy it for a second.
“If she was in possession of a knife, threatening to use it in a fight and brandishing it around. That’s dangerous,” said Engel, who is the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association policing committee chair.
“That is dangerous to the public and you’re just not going to see the Edmonton Police Service deciding not to charge in those circumstances.”
On Monday, police said they did not end up laying charges against the unnamed woman.
A statement from EPS corporate communications said “intoxication was considered a factor in the weapon’s complaint” and there was no “willing complainant,” so no charges were laid — instead, the woman’s outstanding warrants were processed, she was given a meal and later released.
Gale said knowing those involved may have been intoxicated makes the situation even more disheartening.
“Where’s the humanity in that? Somebody who is at their most vulnerable, who doesn’t have all their faculties about them, and here, authority is picking on them?
“If it starts with our most vulnerable, then you can be darned sure it’s going to be you or me next.”
University of Alberta criminology professor Temitope Oriola said the situation speaks to the challenges police agencies face every day.
“This was an individual that we now know was intoxicated. Well, welcome to the 21st century. Increasingly, police organizations have been called to deal with social conditions and so this was one of those examples.”
That said, Oriola said the shove was completely avoidable and the responding officer needed to slow down and take a few minutes to talk to the woman.
“Respectful treatment of citizens is crucial, especially when there’s no immediate danger to society, to that individual themselves and all that,” Oriola said.
“This was not a life-or-death situation. They just needed a few extra minutes of verbal engagement with this individual.”
Oriola isn’t surprised the Edmonton Police Service didn’t charge the woman, saying the optics were terrible.
“They would have found it extremely difficult to secure any kind of conviction because the video evidence was all that the defence would have needed to play in the courtroom as proof that this was an unreasonable and unjustifiable use of force.”
Gale acknowledges there are many positive interactions with police, but said police forces still need to be held accountable.
“How are they going to know what’s good and bad if we don’t show them? So we’ve got to be diligent in making sure that we hold them accountable and videotape them whenever you’re out in public.
“They are the civil servants of our society and we ought to be able to trust them.”
Engel is calling for a public inquiry.
“There has to be an investigation into this — the use of force by the officer and then the cover-up,” he said.
While the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) is tasked with investigating serious or sensitive allegations of police misconduct, Engel said they probably don’t have the capacity, citing how it can take several years for the busy government agency to release their findings.
Gale also said ASIRT is staffed with people from the law enforcement and legal worlds and believes Alberta needs a different oversight body made up of civilians.
Engel is calling on the Edmonton Police Commission to conduct a public inquiry.
“They will be able to force the EPS to produce all the videos, the pictures of the so-called knife, all of these things, and get to the bottom of it very quickly.”
Edmonton city councillor Sarah Hamilton sits on the police commission and said it isn’t that simple. It will be a topic of conversation, she said, but cautioned people have to be careful about their expectations.
“The police commission is responsible for governance, for budget, for policy, but the responsibility of oversight in terms of use of force, deeming something excessive force — that lays with the minister of justice and the director of law enforcement and is regulated through the Alberta policing standards,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton said the commission has a duty to ensure the police service is compliant with its obligations but “it’s a much more complicated conversation than just, you know, the commission investigating — because I don’t think the commission can. I know they can’t, actually.”
Hamilton said the recent acts of violence in the city warrant having a difficult conversation. Two weeks ago, a man was killed and two women were injured in a stabbing spree.
Last week, Mayor Amarjeet Sohi met with the family of stabbing victim Brian Berland at city hall.
“On Monday of last week, we mourned the death of somebody who was the victim of a random act of violent stabbing. And by Friday, we are questioning the actions of an officer who was, in fact, drawn into that situation.”
In its statement last week, EPS said the officer was faced with a decision on how much force to use, given the woman was armed, and determined “pushing her to the ground would require the least amount of force possible to allow him to safely arrest the suspect.”
Hamilton said the video is hard to watch because the officer used force with the purpose of disarming somebody who could have hurt others.
“That is the reality — it’s very hard to watch. And there should absolutely be questions about use of force and excessive force. But I also don’t want us to lose sight of the very real situation.”
The video quickly made the rounds on the internet and was shared widely, including by some others on city council. Hamilton said this is a challenging situation because many people watched the 12-second clip and made assumptions.
“In many cases recently, we have seen people jump to conclusions. And it’s bothersome because we don’t have all the information. We don’t have all the facts,” Hamilton said.
“The facts are not always readily available to us — not as politicians, not as police commissioners, not even, I would argue to the investigating officers. It takes time for information to come out.
“I don’t think there is a good answer here, because I think that we have a social framework right now which demands fast and easy answers, that we demand all the information. But our justice process is slow. It is, at times, unwieldy.”
After reviewing the incident, police said last week there were no grounds for an investigation by the EPS Professional Standards Branch. Edmonton police have only released two written statements about the incident.
Oriola said some people no longer trust the official narratives of events that come from police. For the public to respect and believe law enforcement, he said this incident can’t be swept under the rug.
“It is mind-boggling that they still continue to hold this line of releasing the minimally necessary information almost at every point in every case. I’m not sure what is to be gained from that kind of approach.” Oriola questioned.
“Why not release the video? Why not allow the public to see it?”
Oriola said it’s important for society to set clear boundaries around what is policing and the kinds of policing tactics that are acceptable.
“Critiquing the police isn’t opposition to the police. We want them to perform. We want them to do well — but we want transparency as well. So it doesn’t serve the public good by holding on to the video that they say exists or denies that they say the woman had (a knife) in her possession.”
The woman in the video has not been identified.