

Chris Herhalt, CP24.com





A provincial police watchdog is recommending Police Services Act charges for Toronto police officers who threatened to seize the phone of a bystander who witnessed an arrest in downtown Toronto earlier this year.

The Office of the Independent Police Review Director says there are reasonable grounds to charge a Toronto police officer—identified in documents obtained by CP24 as Sgt. Miranda — with discreditable conduct for ordering another officer to “interfere” with Waseem Khan as he filmed officers arresting a man on the corner of Dundas and Church streets on Jan. 24.

Khan began filming several officers arresting a man after he said he witnessed one of the officers kick the suspect in the head and stomp on him. The suspect was then hit with a stun gun several times.

The OIPRD recommends that Sgt. Miranda also be charged with unlawful exercise of authority in relation to the use of force against the suspect.

“I was disturbed by what I saw,” Independent Police Review Director Gerry McNeely told CP24 Thursday.

He says a disciplinary hearing must be held in relation to the use of force.

In the video, an officer is seen ordering another to “get that guy out of my face please,” and two officers approach Khan and ask him to stop filming, threatening to take his phone if they do not.

One of the two officers then told Khan that the suspect they were attempting to arrest would “spit on” Khan and later said “you’re going to get AIDS.”

The OIPRD says this statement constituted discreditable conduct.

Khan told CP24 he later stopped filming because he was afraid police would seize his phone.

Speaking to CP24 on Thursday, Khan said he thought the OIPRD did a thorough job and he eagerly awaits the hearing.

“I’m glad there’s going to be hearing and hopefully it can move to some sort of concrete action.”

He added that since the day of the incident, none of the officers involved have come forward to apologize, for the AIDS comment or threatening to unlawfully seize his phone.

“I think it would have been pretty reasonable to hear an apology.”

The Toronto Police service as a whole later issued an apology in relation to the AIDS comment.

Toronto police spokesperson Mark Pugash said at the time that officers were originally called to the area because the suspect was allegedly spitting at someone.

The suspect allegedly punched the first officer that responded to the scene, knocking her to the ground. He then bit a construction worker who came to the officer’s aid.

He later kicked out the back window of a police cruiser, Pugash said.

Pugash said the officers’ threat to seize the phone was wrong, as police do not have the authority to arbitrarily seize phones.

The OIPRD also alleges a total of six officers that responded to the incident “failed to activate the In-Car Camera system microphones upon arriving at the scene of the incident, contrary to police orders.”

NcNeely said that the officer who made the AIDS comment and threatened to seize the cell phone, as well as the officers who allegedly decided not to activate in-camera microphones — less serious offences in his view — can be dealt with via an informal disciplinary process with Police Chief Mark Saunders.

But if the officers’ object to the remedy Saunders recommends in response, their actions can be referred to a formal disciplinary hearing.

The OIPRD says the matter is ultimately up to Saunders to formally lay Police Services Act Charges, appoint a prosecutor and schedule a hearing.

Khan’s lawyer, Selwyn Pieters, said the decision for McNeely to recommend Police Services Act charges supports Khan’s “contention that something was not right when (Khan) took out his phone to record what was taking place that day.”

“This is one step in a direction of restoring public trust and public confidence in policing.”

He added that bystanders filming police conduct is a routine but valuable action that ensures police conduct themselves honourably.

With the officers’ in-car camera audio systems allegedly turned off that day, he suggested the police would be less than honest about the incident if it weren’t for Khan’s recording.

“Had Waseem not recorded the interaction, the (officers) would have lied.”

Toronto Police Association President Mike McCormack says his union had spoken to the officers involved in the incident.