A London police officer has been cleared of any wrongdoing in an arrest that left a 27-year-old woman with a broken foot.
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) announced Thursday that the amount of force used during the January 1 arrest was "measured and proportionate" given the circumstances.
Police had been called to a home on St. George Street around 9:45 p.m. after a woman accused of damaging a restaurant washroom a block away was seen running into the backyard of the property. A man who chased the woman from the restaurant told police the woman had a knife, which he believed she tossed while running away. The woman got in a "physical altercation" with an officer while he was trying to arrest her which led to the officer tasering the woman.
The woman later told investigators the officer handcuffed her before kicking her in the head. She said out of self-defence she picked up a pair of scissors but ended up dropping them. At that point, she claimed the officer grabbed her left foot with both hands and broke it.
The SIU report notes the woman's recollection of the arrest was hindered as she was impaired by alcohol and cocaine at the time. Further evidence showed her fractured foot was the result of her rolling her ankle.
The officer involved declined to be interviewed or release his notes, as is his legal right. But other officers told investigators the woman had come at the officer with scissors before he tasered her. The officer was cut in the leg during the incident.
"It seems to me that the [subject officer's] resort to force in these circumstances was a measured and proportionate response to the risk at hand that fell within the latitude of permissible force prescribed by the criminal law," SIU Interim Director Joseph Martino said in the report. "In the result, whatever the cause of the [woman's] fractured left foot, I am satisfied there are no grounds for proceeding with criminal charges against the subject officer and the file is closed."
The SIU is an arm’s length agency that investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.
