Testimony identifies gaps in complaint process during inquiry into violent arrest
CBC
A complaint filed against Calgary police officers for their role in the traumatic arrest of a Calgary man was not fully investigated but should have been, an inquiry heard Wednesday.
Godfred Addai-Nyamekye was violently arrested in December 2013. He submitted a complaint against several officers as a result. The 10-day inquiry is examining how that complaint was managed from intake to conclusion.
On Monday, Darren Leggatt, the inspector of the professional standards section at the time, testified at the hearing. The section investigates complaints against police officers.
Looking back, Leggatt said he believes the section did take Addai-Nyamekye's complaint seriously.
But there are gaps, he said. In this case, they didn't ensure that Addai-Nyamekye's complaint was filed as he intended, including all the officers involved.
"The system may have failed in having too linear a definition or belief of what withdrawal was," Leggatt said.
Leggatt said he believes the officers identified in the complaint — not by name, but by their choice to leave Addai-Nyamekye far from home and in the cold — should have been investigated.
Addai-Nyamekye testified that was his intent, but witnesses have walked through the process revealing an apparent miscommunication along the way.
Addai-Nyamekye had a confrontation with three officers early in the morning, a few days after Christmas Day in 2013, that ended with him having a cut lip and in the back of a police vehicle.
He was dropped off far from his home by officers — referred to in the hearing as the transport officers — in the middle of winter and wearing only light clothing.
The apparent miscommunication at the complaint intake stage kept those transport officers from being a part of the complaint.
Several Calgary Police Service members testified they believed the officers should have been investigated. Some testified about their frustration and individual efforts to have the officers investigated.
After a year, the officers could no longer be part of the complaint because of a policy time-barring them. But police service members like Leggatt said it should have been considered a part of the initial complaint. Police members have testified an internal investigation was shut down because it had been too long.
"I believe he raised it in time," Leggatt testified about Addai-Nyamekye's complaint about the transport officers.
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