RCMP Watch

Tanya Foubert, Canmore, Alberta (Rocky Mountain Outlook) -Three teenage Canmore girls and their parents are upset after RCMP members pulled the teens over at gunpoint after responding to an erroneous complaint, and have since failed to apologize or address their concerns over how they were treated when the error became apparent.

The girls were on their way home after sledding on Jan. 31 when the takedown happened, and they say cops afterwards dismissed their concerns, refused to apologize for the mix-up and told them they “would like to see what your parents can do about it.”

Leslie Brimacombe’s 17-year-old daughter Stacey Hall was driving her vehicle when they were stopped by police, acting on an erroneous complaint of a stolen car. Her 15-year-old daughter Stephanie was in the back seat and a friend, 17-year-old Gracie Reid was in the front passenger seat.

Brimacombe does not understand how the officers could walk away from all three girls after pointing a gun at them, exhibiting absolutely no concern for their well-being.

“Where is the personal part of their job, their humanity?” she said. “What rules do they have to make sure they don’t mentally harm you?”

Leslie Reid was on a cell phone with her daughter Gracie throughout the entire event. She says police failed to act in a professional manner.

To date no one from the detachment has made an effort to contact Reid or Brimacombe to address their concerns, despite both having left messages for those in charge.

“There was no respect for the girls,” Reid said. “Why didn’t they call the next day and check on them?”

She said not one of the officers present seemed concerned about what state they left the three girls in, considering they had just been involved in a high-risk takedown at gunpoint.

The detachment is refusing to discuss the situation.

Head of the detachment, Staff Sgt. Shannon Johnson, did not return requests for an interview with the Outlook.

Sgt. Blaine Smuk said to even discuss the situation would be against the law.

“I cannot release anything and the reason being that in an investigation, if that investigation leads to no charges, then we are not going to release any circumstances on it. If we do, it is going to go against the privacy act or law,” Smuk said. “When charges are laid it becomes public knowledge or information, but when no charges are laid as the result of an investigation and when there’s young people we will not be releasing circumstances.”

He could not provide the Outlook with the exact law and section that prevented him from discussing the matter.

Smuk said the local detachment does engage in several youth-focused programs and activities and has a youth representative on its police advisory committee.

Stephanie, Stacey and Gracie were on their way home from sledding when they were pulled over at the railway crossing on Railway Avenue and Bow Valley Trail at about 10:30 p.m.

Stacey initially thought she might have run a yellow light coming from Benchlands Trail. A train was passing at the time so they were stopped, with the cruiser behind them.

The three had no clue the vehicle they were driving had been reported stolen. They later learned that a snowball fight they’d had earlier in front of a friend’s house, after they were finished sledding, had prompted a neighbour to report suspicious behaviour when they were seen darting in and out of parked cars, using the vehicles as shields.

While stopped at the train, the girls noticed three cars had surrounded them.

They don’t remember how many officers had surrounded the car because their attention was drawn to a female officer on the passenger side of the truck who was pointing her gun directly at Gracie in the front seat through an open window. The other officers had their guns drawn but at their sides.

“When someone is pointing a gun at you, you look at that,” Stacey said.

Amidst the yelling to keep their hands up and getting her licence and registration out, Stacey said the fact that the vehicle was not stolen quickly became apparent.

Gracie was asked to produce identification but she didn’t have any. When she asked why she needed ID, since the entire situation was a

mix-up, she said the officer threatened to charge her with obstruction.

Gracie said she was upset by the entire situation and when she asked an officer for his card so she could have his name, he would not give her one.

She then asked if they thought they should apologize, having just mistakenly pointed a loaded gun at them.

“They said ‘We don’t owe you anything, it’s our job,’” Gracie said “It was scary and now every time I see a cop I get freaked out.”

Stacey said she gets chills now thinking about what happened, and their mothers recognize just how traumatic the experience was - even for them.

Brimacombe was at home when she got a phone call from one of the officers at the scene inquiring about what kind of vehicle she owned and who may be driving it.

She said he then hung up and did not attempt to explain the situation or why he was asking about her daughter and vehicle, leaving her afraid that something had happened.

“He was so ignorant and so abrupt it was like he thought he was dealing with a criminal,” Brimacombe said.

Shaken, the girls drove themselves home, Stacey in tears, and all three remain upset by how little respect they were shown after it became evident it was all a big mistake.

“I wouldn’t be so upset if they had apologized,” Stephanie said. “How hard is it for one word to come out of your mouth: ‘Sorry.’”

Sgt. Patrick Webb with K-Division out of Calgary said when RCMP receive a complaint of a stolen car, it is considered a high risk situation, but how they respond depends on each situation.

“I’ve been in policing for 28 years and I have never seen a duplicate of the same thing,” Webb said. “To say there is an absolute route to anything would be wrong.

“You have to do a risk assessment.”

He said officers having their guns drawn would not be unexpected because they do not know what they might encounter.

The girls’ mothers are not the only ones recently concerned with how their children have been treated by police.

Long-time local parent Susan Balharry said she has noticed a change in how police treat youth over time, and it is not for the better.

“We have brought up six kids in this community and we have brought them up to respect authority and the law, but when constables behave like this it is hard,” she said. “I don’t know why they are treating youth like this.

“I have good kids. They are by no means perfect, but the cops need an attitude change.”

Even her own 18-year-old son Chris has recently had run-ins with RCMP that she says illustrate the problem.

This winter, she said, he was on his way to his midnight

snow-making shift at the Nordic Centre when he stopped at a convenience store. After leaving the store he was promptly pulled over by RCMP and Balharry said she believes they were looking for drugs or alcohol.

When they found none, she said they charged her son with having his licence plate covered with snow and gave him a $115 fine.

The charge was later dropped by the crown prosecutor, but Balharry said it was not the only incident her son has had that demonstrates a lack of respect for youth.

On Canada Day, she said,

Chris was leaving the Drake

with a group of friends, all of

whom had never been involved

in fighting before, when a man in his mid-20s

pushed through the group. When the youths told him to watch where he was going the man, who has a blue belt in karate, proceeded to knock her son unconscious and beat one of his friends so badly his eye was dislodged from its socket.

Balharry said RCMP informed her after charges were dropped that the man had no previous record and the kids had provoked him that evening. She said she later learned he has a record in Banff for being violent.

She said her son and his friends, one of whom is still recovering, felt unsupported by the RCMP after being victims of a crime.

Balharry said the incidents involving her son and those with Stephanie, Stacey and Gracie are reflective of a bigger issue with respect to the relationship between youth and police.

The girls and their mothers agree, saying police are not only part of the community but funded through taxpayers and should be accountable when they act unprofessionally.

Family and Community Support Services youth worker Tara

Gilchrist said when she speaks to teens about their interactions with the RCMP she usually takes it with a grain of salt, as they are often upset because they know they did something wrong.

The interactions between teens and cops usually involves partying in the bush or consuming alcohol and Gilchrist said there is no general sense the police are going out of their way to treat youth disrespectfully, but there is always a mild tension between the two groups.

“I am not hearing of youth that are not doing (illegal) things having a problem with the RCMP or being disrespected,” she said. “They don’t have a reputation of picking on kids or disrespecting kids. Unfortunately in this situation, if that is what happened, it was wrong.”

Gilchrist acknowledged that having failed to apologize or recognize how upset the three girls may have been could damage the RCMP’s broader relationship with youth in the community.