RCMP Watch

Kathleen Harris, Sun Media

More than 95 detainees have died in RCMP custody in the last 10 years, most commonly from suicide, medical conditions, or an overdose of drugs or alcohol.

Records obtained by Sun Media through Access to Information show several deaths occurred after unruly suspects were subdued with taser guns or other restraints, though the control methods were not necessarily deemed a factor in sudden deaths caused by a condition called “excited delirium.”

Incidents outlined in RCMP reports include a prisoner who hanged himself with string pulled from his underwear; an escapee who leaped over a guard rail into a frigid river and the unexplained death of a man who stopped breathing after telling officers he was “trying to talk with God but was not getting a response.”

In another 2005 case, a female cocaine user died after having a seizure in a police cell.

Data reveals 15 suicides and 56 deaths related to medical conditions, drug overdose or alcohol poisoning in the 10-year period that excluded 1997-1998.

One death was from a gunshot, three were ruled “accidental” and four were from natural causes.

Another 10 could not be explained and six fell in the “other” category. Six of the prisoners who died between 2000-2005 were women.

RCMP has policy and training in place to ensure “client safety,” including constant monitoring of high-risk or emotionally disturbed individuals and a requirement guards call for immediate assistance if concerned about a prisoner’s level of responsiveness.

“The RCMP takes the health and well-being of individuals in their custody very seriously,” said spokesperson Sgt. Martin Blais.

“As a national body, the RCMP’s Community Contract and Aboriginal Policing Services at headquarters in Ottawa monitors coroners, inquests and inquiries from coast to coast, and carefully considers all recommendations to determine common elements and systems to prevent these deaths.”

All deaths are probed by the RCMP’s major crime unit and the jurisdiction’s coroner.