Hamilton police board needs policy to prevent officer Charter breaches: former assistant Crown
No-knock raid in 2021 violated woman's rights and saw evidence seized tossed out of court
A retired assistant Crown attorney is calling on Hamilton's police board to implement a new policy that could prevent officers from breaching people's Charter rights.
During the Feb. 29 police board meeting, Andrew Bell criticized the police service and the board about officers who violated a woman's Charter rights after smashing their way into her downtown apartment home to look for drugs in 2021.
The case against the Hamilton woman and the evidence officers seized — which included $500,000 of cannabis products, $50,000 in cash and some magic mushrooms — were thrown out of court because of police actions.
Bell proposed a new policy that would see the police chief notify board members whenever an officer was found to have breached someone's Charter rights.
Doing so, Bell said, would allow the board to inspect the case with the chief, learn from the mistakes and fix the problem.
"No criminal case should ever be lost or compromised due to a Charter breach by the Hamilton Police Service," he said, describing the raid as a "monstrous failure."
"It took more than two-and-a-half years and a judge to root out the problems. The police should've caught it and they didn't."
WATCH | The moment Hamilton police raided a downtown apartment unit
Bell said not implementing a policy like the one he is suggesting would leave the board vulnerable to hefty lawsuits, increase mistrust from the public and discourage recruits from wanting to join the police service.
Bell, who practiced in Hamilton, made the delegation at the meeting out of concern.
Board members Dr. Anjali Menezes and Coun. Cameron Kroetsch asked clarifying questions about his proposal and if any other police board had implemented something similar.
"I want this board to take action," Bell said. "Be a pioneer."
The 2021 raid was a no-knock raid, which is when police don't knock on the door, announce their presence and wait for someone to answer.
It was the second time a judge has found Hamilton police violated someone's Charter rights using a no-knock raid in recent years, according to publicly accessible court rulings. A judge gave a similar ruling on a police raid in 2019.
Last year — per recommendations to all police services from the Office of the Independent Police Review Director — HPS told the police board it made changes to the planning stages of no-knock raids, what happens after the raids and how it tracks that data. It also trained officers on the Charter, police spokesperson Jackie Penman previously said.
HPS board Chair Pat Mandy recently told CBC Hamilton in an interview the police service is meeting all the recommendations in the review director's report and eventually the board will be able to ask more questions about no-knock raids.
CBC Hamilton previously filed a freedom of information request about no-knock raids done by HPS from 2019 to 2021. The resulting data showed the number of raids was on the rise, but those statistics only captured raids by the emergency response unit.
Penman said HPS could not say how often no-knock raids took place before 2024.
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