Vancouver Police Department announces official changes to handcuffing policy

The Vancouver Police Department announced that it has officially updated its handcuffing policy, requiringofficers to take into accounta person's age, ethnicity, and the seriousness of an alleged incident prior to applying handcuffs.

The announcement follows interim changes to the policy aftera May 2021 incident that saw officers detainand handcuff B.C.'s first Black Supreme Court judge, Selwyn Romilly, while looking for another Black man half his age.

The policy changewas implemented in Octoberthat same year and went into effecton aninterim basis, police say.

However, at the time, the Vancouver Police Board said it would be officially approved after recommendationsfrom an investigationinto Romilly's case, as well asa B.C. Human Rights Tribunal case involving an Indigenous man and his granddaughter who were wrongfully detained outside a Vancouver bank.

Thatwas settled in September, and an update to the Police Act complaint filed by Romillymade the change official on Friday.

"Retired Justice Romilly signed an informal resolution agreement [on Thursday], which is why we posted this today," said VPDConst. Tania Visintin in an emailed statement Friday.

On May 14,2021, five Vancouver police officers approached Romilly as he was walking on the Stanley Park seawall and put him in handcuffs, mistaking him for an assault suspect described as dark-skinned and 40 to 50 years old.

The VPD's use of handcuffs had been under scrutiny ever since Heiltsuk man Maxwell Johnson and his granddaughter Toriannewere handcuffed outside a bankdespite not having committed a crime.

The wrongful handcuffing of the retired judge also sparked questions over the department's treatment of Black people, especially after it emerged that VPD officers had falsely imprisoned Selwyn's brother Valmondin 1974.

Retired Justice Romilly finished law school at the University of British Columbia in 1966, and he was decades older than the suspect being sought by police.

"I have no gun, I don't have anything in my hand or my person. And here you have at 9:45 a.m., near to Third Beach where you have lots of people you have a Black guy ... shackled in handcuffs and people passing by. I found that most embarrassing," Romilly told CBC News at the time.

The department's chief, as well as then-mayor Kennedy Stewart, apologized to the judge after the incident.

New policy places onus on officers

The most notable changesto the VPD's handcuffing policy aredocumentationaround safely using handcuffs, and that officers must have lawful authority to use them.

Officers are now told to use their discretion when it comes to the severity of the offence, as well as considering age, Indigeneity, race and disability of the individual.

"A police officer cannot view handcuffing someone who is under arrest, detained, or apprehended as a routine action," reads a statement from the VPD outlining the policy changes.

The policy also places the legal responsibility on individual officers who use force, with the department saying officers cannot rely on an orderto avoid legal repercussions.

WATCH | Campaigner says new policy is 'lacklustre':

Vancouver police face backlash for lack of anti-racist action in handcuffing policy

2 years ago

Duration 1:08

Tonye Aganaba, criminalization and policing campaigner at the Pivot Legal Society, calls the policy a whole lot of nothing

'A whole lot of nothing'

Tonye Aganaba, a criminalization and policing campaigner with Pivot Legal Society, says the policy is "lacklustre" considering the police board hasbeen working on it since 2020.

"I am surprised to see that what I actually assumed was just common sense is now needing to be written down as policy," said Aganaba.

Because this policy was partially in response toRomilly'swrongful arrest, Aganaba saysit shows how important having power is to making concrete change.

"I think it won't make a difference to people who are poor, to people who are already living criminalized lifestyles."

Aganaba says while the policy is a step in the right direction, it does not make any strides toward addressing systemic racism.

"All it does is encourage cops to use their discretion which they already have the power to do ... It's a whole lot of nothing."