No Charges Regarding Allegation of HRP Video Deletion

The province's independent Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT) today released its report regarding its investigation into an allegation that a member of Halifax Regional Police (HRP) deleted video from a male’s phone. 

On the early morning hours of April 27, 2017, two male university students were at Cheers Bar and Grill (Cheers) on Grafton St. in Halifax. After one of the males was asked to leave by security personnel at the bar, both males left the area for about 10 minutes. Both were impacted by alcohol. One of the males then returned and approached an HRP officer in front of Cheers. That led to an interaction between the two which resulted in that male being put to the ground and arrested by the police officer. The other friend attempted to record a video of the arrest on his cell phone. In the end both friends were arrested for being intoxicated in public and taken to HRP cells. 

On his release the next day the friend who attempted to video record the arrest noticed there was no video on his phone. The following week he complained to HRP that a police officer deleted the video. 

SiRT’s investigation demonstrated that video from Cheers showed the male attempting to video the last part of the arrest. However, a technological analysis of the phone could not confirm whether the video existed and was erased, or if it had simply never existed. Importantly, even if the video had been recorded the evidence was not able to identify any specific police officers who may have erased the video. Therefore, there are no grounds to consider any charges against any police officers. 

A complete copy of the report is available at http://sirt.novascotia.ca.

SIRT is responsible for investigating all serious incidents involving police in Nova Scotia. Investigations are under the direction and control of independent civilian director Ron MacDonald, who is solely responsible for decisions respecting the laying of any charge.

Media Contact:

Ron MacDonald, QC

Director

902-424-8400 (o)

902-718-9707 (m)