More background, more insight
More background, more insight
Police make a responsible apology
By
Waterloo Region Record
Everybody makes mistakes. What matters is how you make amends. And Waterloo Regional Police have acted decently, first by conducting a prompt and extensive investigation, and then by apologizing to Jesse Sansone, the Kitchener dad wrongfully “strip-searched” while under arrest because police thought he had an illegal handgun.
Last February, Sansone came to school to pick up his four-year-old daughter. She had drawn a picture of him with a gun. Worried the children could be in danger, the principal called child protection workers, who called police. They arrested, handcuffed and searched Sansone. In the end, the suspected handgun turned out to be an Air Soft Pistol, which shoots small plastic pellets. Sansone was released without charges. His ordeal had lasted four and a half hours.
Once you know how the story ends, it’s easy to say police were too heavy-handed. But put yourself in their position, with what they knew at the time, and it looks very different. Consider this:
• The child said she had access to the gun. She gave a detailed description of what seemed to be a handgun. It was “wrapped, locked in the master bedroom drawer, and accessible via a key,” the police report said.
• A check on Sansone revealed he had a previous criminal record for violence, and was prohibited from possessing firearms and other weapons. Neither he nor his wife had the documentation to lawfully possess a firearm.
• Sansone’s wife said she had seen one child pointing the gun at the head of her four-year-old child.
No wonder, then, that police decided to put Sansone under arrest for unlawful possession of a firearm, and get everyone else out of the house until they found it.
Their report is one-sided, given that it’s the police investigating themselves, and Sansone declined to participate. Even so, it’s clear that officers were careful and courteous, given what they thought they were dealing with. They covered the glass windows in the principal’s office so Sansone would have privacy as he was being arrested. And only after all children and parents had left the school was Sansone walked to the police vehicle and handcuffed.
Police search suspects, in part, to remove concealed weapons. Sansone was subjected to what police call a “thorough search,” which means the clothes next to the body are removed, but intimate body cavities are not searched. Thorough searches are only supposed to be done if charges are being laid for sure. In hindsight, he should only have had a “frisk search,” which means officers touch only the outer layer of clothing.
Beyond the apology, the report recommends refresher training for police on different kinds of searches and when each is appropriate. Technology will be investigated, such as that now used in airports, to see if it can do the job less intrusively. That’s a decent response.
Remember, 100 kilometres down Highway 401, Toronto police acted shamefully during the G20 protests of July 2010. There, hundreds of innocent people were deprived of civil rights – some beaten, some woken from sleep by police bearing weapons, and some held for hours, deprived of water, blankets and toilet facilities before being released without charges. More than 100 police removed their identification tags. Police Chief Bill Blair has yet to apologize for all that. By contrast, I think our guys look pretty good.
