British Columbia's police watchdog says RCMP policy or training may need to change to better respond to calls involving Indigenous people after complaints that police actions were more forceful than necessary.
The assessment comes in a report released this month about the suicide of an Indigenous man in Williams Lake, who died during a standoff with Mounties in July 2022.
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The Independent Investigations Office report says there was no evidence that racism was a factor, but the man’s family and community members raised "significant concerns" about the level of police response and ongoing discrimination by the Williams Lake RCMP.
The report says the case doesn't meet the bar for a charge assessment but it "raises bigger questions" about how police approached the situation involving an Indigenous person in a mental health crisis.
It says a report to police of a man with a loaded gun prompted the emergency response team to attend, 25 officers were involved in the call and had used tear gas to try and draw him out, but he was found dead a short time later.
The office’s chief civilian director Jessica Berglund says in the report that she’ll be referring the file to the RCMP and the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for their assessment on whether changes to policy or training are necessary.
