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Victoria police officer who abused authority suspended without pay for two days

A Victoria police officer who abused his authority by using excessive force when he arrested a young man during a drunken brawl on Store Street three years ago will be suspended without pay for two days. Const.
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Victoria, March 2010

A Victoria police officer who abused his authority by using excessive force when he arrested a young man during a drunken brawl on Store Street three years ago will be suspended without pay for two days.

Const. Chris Bowser must also take six hours of use-of-force retraining with an emphasis on reducing potentially violent conflict and participate in an anger-management assessment.

The disciplinary measures were imposed Friday by adjudicator Ben Casson at the conclusion of a public hearing ordered by the Police Complaint Commissioner.

Last month, Casson found that Bowser, 41, and Const. Brendan Robinson, 27, used excessive force when they arrested Tyler Archer on March 21, 2010. A video of the incident, captured on video and posted to YouTube, has been viewed more than 280,000 times.

The video shows Bowser commanding Archer to get on the ground. On the second command, Archer sits down. Bowser moves forward, suggesting he is about to handcuff Archer, when Robinson charges toward Archer and tackles him. In the ensuing struggle, Bowser delivers a hard kick to the left side of Archer’s exposed torso and knees Archer twice in the middle of the back.

Casson found Robinson, who was in his first year on the job, made mistakes but did not abuse his authority. He found Bowser abused his authority by not intervening when Robinson tackled Archer.

“Not only did Const. Bowser not intervene to prevent Const. Robinson’s unnecessary use of force, he escalated the use of such force by delivering foot and knee strikes to vulnerable parts of Archer’s body,” Casson found.

Any perception that Archer was a threat should have been dispelled the instant he got down on the ground as commanded, Casson said.

At Bowser’s disciplinary hearing on April 5, Bowser’s lawyer, Dennis Murray, and public hearing counsel Michael Tammen made a joint submission asking for a two-day suspension, retraining and anger-management assessment. Casson accepted their submission without change.

Casson said he was not concerned with the likelihood of future misconduct and noted that Bowser had no prior history of misconduct during his 15 years as a police officer.

He found the aggravating factors in the case to be the nature of the force used by Bowser to handcuff Archer and the vulnerable areas of the body Bowser struck.

Victoria Police Chief Jamie Graham said the department respects the sanctions imposed by Casson.

“We will review the details of the decision and the circumstances of this case to determine if changes or adjustments should be made to our policies and procedures,” Graham said in a statement.

“The department continues to support the civilian oversight mechanisms that are in place in this province and the important work that they do ensuring public confidence in the work that we do.”

Victoria lawyer Richard Neary, who is representing Archer in a civil suit, said Casson did an admirable job.

“Chris Bowser says he now accepts responsibility and he knows what he did is wrong. The Victoria Police Department says they accept the outcome of these proceedings,” said Neary.

“It’s time now for the long-awaited apology that my client asked for for three years, and it’s time for Victoria police to quit denying liability in the civil suit. If they don’t, frankly, all of these comments about accepting responsibility and accepting this outcome are meaningless.”

Much of the disciplinary hearing was overshadowed by comments made by Victoria Deputy Police Chief John Ducker immediately after Casson’s finding that Bowser abused his authority.

Ducker, in his role as acting police chief, said: “These are some of the best officers we have in the department. I don’t believe they were acting unreasonably.”

Tammen called the remarks unfortunate, ill-advised and inappropriate, particularly because they were made before the hearing concluded.

Casson called the remarks outrageous and on Friday said he would write to Police Complaint Commissioner Stan Lowe and suggest an amendment to the Police Act that would give adjudicators the power to instruct counsel to apply for a contempt order.

“Adjudicators do not have power to hold people in contempt,” Tammen said. “So the adjudicator is powerless to do anything about the comments that offended him. All the commissioner can do is ask the legislature to make changes to the Police Act. Whether the legislature makes the changes is anybody’s guess.”

ldickson@timescolonist.com