A retired police commander testified Friday to faking arrests during a G20 protest so he could let bystanders he believed were unjustly being detained by police go home.

At a disciplinary hearing for Supt. David (Mark) Fenton, accused of unlawful arrest and discreditable conduct, Insp. Norn Miles said he was ordered to kettle, or box-in, a “passive” crowd of about 250 people at Queen St. W. and Spadina Ave. on June 27, 2010, a tactic with which he wasn’t familiar. Despite alerting Toronto police’s Major Incident Command Centre via radio and phone calls that not everyone in the crowd was a protester and of the stormy weather conditions, his orders didn’t change, he said.

“It was abundantly clear that we were to maintain the line and hold onto protesters.”

A member of York Regional Police at the time, Miles was in charge of hundreds of on-the-ground officers the weekend of the G20 summit. He said police were “shoulder to shoulder” on all four sides of the Queen and Spadina intersection Sunday afternoon, leaving no exit route. He estimated 150 to 200 people were part of the protest but said he did not witness anyone concealing their face, being violent, holding weapons or damaging property. At no point were police given discretion to allow people who appeared to be innocent bystanders to leave, he said.

“Everybody that was in there was under arrest.”

As the night wore on and a “torrential downpour” ensued, Miles said he and a few other officers let some members of the crowd go, including a Chinese family and a couple of shivering teenagers.

“We made it look like people who were coming out were under arrest,” he said, adding, “I’d do it again.”

He said he asked to speak to the officer in charge, Fenton, but was told he was unavailable. When he spoke to a dispatcher at the command centre, he requested busses to shelter wet protesters.

A public order commander, Miles said he had considerable experience in policing demonstrations, but he had never seen kettling used before. Normally, police would advise citizens to disperse and provide them with a means of egress, he said.

Fenton’s defence attorney asked Miles if he remembered ever speaking directly to Fenton. He said he didn’t but was certain his orders were coming from command centre.

Fenton has pleaded not guilty to five charges of unlawful arrest and discreditable conduct.