Off-duty Mounties who allegedly sped, spun cars on highway not being charged

Two off-duty RCMPofficers who allegedly partied and drank alcohol at a co-worker's house before jumpinginto cars and doing doughnuts on a highway have been cleared of charges "due to a lack of evidence."

The alleged incident happened June 30, 2017, but wasn'treported toRCMPmanagement until early July, according to theIndependent Investigation Unit, the police watchdog that examines all incidents having to do with police, whether on duty or off,in the province.

The IIUissued a news release on Friday saying it had looked into the complaint, which allegedthe officers were impaired and raced around in their own vehicles before doing the spins on Highway 44.

The RCMPconducted an investigation and then notified the IIU,

TheIIUinterviewed 11 witnesses who attended the party in the Rural Municipality ofWhitemouth, but investigators were unable to locate any relevant video.Itdetermined that, due to lack of evidence, neither officer will face any charges.

In his report on the investigation, IIU civilian director Zane Tessler noted the delay in reporting the incident significantly affected the ability of investigators to gather evidence.

As a result, an accurate measure of how much alcohol either officer drank at the party could not be determined. Investigators were also unable to determine how much might have been in their system at the time of driving, or whether they had even driven thevehicles.