Vancouver Police Requires Officers to Consider Age, Ethnicity Before Handcuffing

Handcuffing suspects can no longer be "routine"

A man in handcuffs in a file photo. (Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images)

The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) has officially updated its handcuffing policy to require officers to consider a person’s age, ethnicity, and the seriousness of the alleged incident before using handcuffs to restrain the individual.

It also informs police officers that they can no longer view handcuffing someone who is under arrest, detained, or apprehended as a “routine action.”

The updated policy, detailed in an April 7 news release, states that before applying handcuffs, the officer must have “lawful authority that is objectively reasonable, is proportionate to the potential risk of harm the officer faces, and is necessary to fulfil a legitimate policing objective.”

The VPD said a “focal point of the policy” is that police officers “must be able to articulate the specific circumstance necessitating the use of handcuffs to restrain a person.”

Under the revised policy, the use of handcuffs must be considered necessary to protect the officers or the public from harm, prevent an individual from trying to leave, locate and preserve evidence, or facilitate the search of a detained or apprehended person.

“Officers have discretion on whether to use handcuffs, even when lawful authority to do so exists. Factors officers should consider prior to applying handcuffs include a person’s age, disabilities, their medical condition, injuries, their size, their ethnicity, or whether they are part of other equity deserving groups,” states the policy.

Another revision to the handcuffing policy states that a police officer who uses force on the job is “legally responsible for the force applied.”

‘Policy and Training Review’

The path to officially updating the policy began in 2020. The Vancouver Police Board undertook a policy and training review following an incident in January that year in which an indigenous man and his 12-year-old granddaughter were handcuffed and were later determined not to have been involved in any crime.

The board approved a revised policy on an interim basis in October 2021 after it received a second complaint, which involved the wrongful handcuffing of retired B.C. Supreme Court justice Selwyn Romilly, the court’s first black judge, while police officers were in pursuit of a significantly younger black suspect.

On May 14, 2021, Romilly was mistaken for a suspect wanted for assault, an individual decades younger, at an estimated age of 40 to 50. At the time, Romilly, 81, was out for a walk in Stanley Park when five officers approached him.

The judge told reporters that he was told to put his hands behind his back and handcuffed. After he told the officers he was a retired judge, they removed the handcuffs, he said.

Police later apologized, while the B.C. Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner asked the Vancouver Police Board to review the incident, saying it had received third-party complaints about how Romilly was treated.

Resolution

The VPD on April 6 this year reached an “informal resolution agreement” with Romilly, according to an April 9 CTV News article, which said the department issued the news release on the revised handcuff policy a day later as part of the resolution.

The board in 2020 examined existing policy, training, case law, and legislation regarding handcuffs and other restraint devices, said the news release.

The 2020 complaint arose from the handcuffing of Maxwell Johnson, an indigenous Heiltsuk First Nation artist, and his 12-year-old granddaughter in December 2019 when they were attempting to open a bank account for the child at a Bank of Montreal branch in Vancouver, reported the Vancouver Sun in September 2022 following a settlement in their human rights complaint against the Vancouver Police Board.

A bank employee phoned 911 on suspicion that their Indian status cards were fake. Both the child and Johnson were placed in handcuffs.

As part of the settlement, the board said police officers had discriminated against Maxwell and his granddaughter based on their indigenous background.

The board issued a statement following its Oct. 21, 2021, meeting regarding its approval of the interim policy. It said it initiated an internal as well as external review of the VPD’s handcuffing policy, which included addressing concerns regarding the application of force by the use of handcuffs as well as “any cultural or systemic issues or factors that may be involved.”

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.