By Geoff Smith

Viral video catches RCMP in full take-down mode

Apr 6, 2016 | 6:06 PM

RCMP said a viral dash cam video showing plainclothes officers arresting a man on a bicycle is simply an example of good police work.

The man had outstanding warrants RCMP detachment commander for the Battlefords Insp. John Sutherland said.

“This is pretty much a routine arrest of a suspect as can be found in a lot of media clips across social media, and certainly there was some good work done by the officers in apprehending this individual,” Sutherland said. He added the man was unharmed during the arrest, but one officer was treated in hospital for a shoulder injury.

The takedown, as it was described, happened shortly before 3 p.m. on April 4. Officers in a white minivan made a wide left turn at the intersection of 100th St. and 15th Ave. coming to an abrupt stop on the sidewalk.

A man on a bicycle appears from behind the van and crosses the street. A plainclothes officer lunged out of the van losing his balance, but managed to take the cyclist’s bike out from under him before falling hard to the ground. The man, now on foot, is tackled by a second officer. The two RCMP officers managed to restrain their suspect on the ground.

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Within seconds, another unmarked vehicle and an RCMP cruiser pull into the intersection, partially blocking traffic as well as the dash cam’s view.

“It seemed pretty epic to me,” Darryl Arnold said, who captured the video on his dashboard-mounted camera. Arnold said he shared the video with RCMP in case they needed it for evidence. He uploaded it to YouTube under “unlisted.” The link, however, began circulating on Facebook prompting Arnold to make it public.

As of Wednesday, the video had more than 5,000 views on YouTube.

Arnold’s store, Kelly’s Computer Works, sells dash cams. He said in these technological times, we should expect to be on video when out in public.

“We actually sell surveillance systems to a number of people and businesses and you’d probably be surprised if you started looking around how often you are on camera,” he said adding a different bystander was using a camera phone to record the action.

Sutherland agreed saying the possibility of being caught on camera might affect both the public’s and officers’ behaviour alike.

“From our perspective, when (videos) do surface it is a good record of what happens,” he said. The inspector welcomed the public to come forward with concerns about police conduct caught on video.

Sutherland explained dashboard-mounted cameras were removed from police cruisers because of concerns of storage and technical issues. The cameras will be reintroduced this year on a trial basis.

Body-cameras are being investigated but Sutherland said police have not worked out how to protect and how long to store the captured videos.

gsmith@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @smithco