The 20-second video was certainly troubling to watch.
Two members of the Estevan Police Service arrested a suspect on Sixth Street in Estevan, with one officer reigning down several blows on the suspect, who wanted to know what he did wrong.
It sparked significant speculation and outcry from the public, with some saying the suspect shouldn’t have committed the crime, others wondering why the EPS reacted the way they did, and some calling for the officers to be punished.
Now, let’s be clear of a few things. There is nothing illegal with capturing the video or photos of the arrest, or posting the footage on social media. However, it’s clear there’s a lot more to the incident. The full exchange was not captured; it’s clear from the initial moments of the video – the distance from which it was shot and the rush to zoom in.
It’s unlikely the eye-witness saw the entire thing.
The person struck by police is facing several charges, including assault of a police officers and resisting arrest. The officers are being subject to an independent investigation, and for good reason.
But they have not been charged as of yet.
You could argue that they shouldn’t be on active duty during the investigation, or that they should be shuffled to elsewhere in the organization.
Ultimately, we have to be cautious with how we react to this, because we don’t know the full story, and we won’t have a better idea until the external review is wrapped up. We can’t assume that the suspect “had it coming,” nor can we assume that the suspect did nothing.
The presence of a video makes for a much different situation than a few years ago, when an EPS constable was fired for assaulting a suspect.
The timing of this incident is terrible for the EPS. We’re hearing growing calls for the number of officers in the city to be reduced. Granted, the critics might not realize the EPS has four positions that have government funding, and police call volumes continue to grow. The number of Criminal Code related incidents has been down, but the EPS isn’t just handing out tickets under the Traffic Safety Act.
A lot of people aren’t happy that an expansion of the police service is going to proceed this year. (They were even more upset 18 months ago when there was talk of a new police building).
And they wonder why we need a police service with more than two dozen members when there aren’t as many people in the city as there were a few years ago, when Units 4 and 5 are coming offline in the next few years, and when we’ve seen businesses shut down.
For those who are critical of the EPS, and for those who want to see a slimmer and trimmer department with fewer specialized services (you’ll always need the four patrol units), an incident like the one this past weekend gives them more ammunition.
Police officers are held to a higher standard, and rightfully so. We expect more from our officers than we do from the general public, not just when they’re on-duty, but in their day to day lives.
But a tough and demanding profession becomes that much more difficult, especially in this day and age of social media exerting too much influence, and yahoos going to sites like the Estevan Rant and Rave to complain just because they were nailed for illegally having too much window tint.
We’ve all seen the surveys that show the public is satisfied with the work the EPS does in the community. They’ve worked hard to engage the community and build public trust.
But those efforts could be dashed, and public trust of the EPS could be shaken, by that video, especially among those who are quick to judge based just on what we see on Facebook.
Which is unfortunate, because we still don’t know the whole story.
