Ottawa’s police chief is looking into the actions of two officers who responded to a fatal single-vehicle accident in the city’s south end earlier this year, but didn’t find the driver’s body until the next day.
Chief Eric Stubbs’s inquiry comes after an initial internal investigation, along with one conducted by Ontario’s police oversight agency.
The officers were dispatched to the crash at Bank Street and Morningside Avenue on Jan. 23. The driver, identified by CBC as Cole Misner, 24, was discovered at the scene on Jan. 24.
An investigation from the Ottawa Police Service’s professional standards unit followed a probe by Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU), which uncovered signs of possible misconduct involving both officers.
The SIU reported that Misner had a blood-alcohol concentration more than double the legal limit when he lost control of his Dodge Caravan around 8:20 p. m. He was thrown from the vehicle and suffered what the SIU called “catastrophic injuries.”
Officers arrived at about 10:13 p. m., but they left around 45 minutes later after checking the empty vehicle and surrounding area.
The following morning, after receiving a call from Misner’s wife saying he hadn’t returned home from work, an officer revisited the scene and found his body partially covered in snow in a ditch.
The SIU ended its investigation in May and passed the matter to Ottawa’s police chief and the province’s Law Enforcement Complaints Agency.
Chief examining possible officer misconduct
The professional standards unit of OPS handles complaints against its members and looks into internal issues of police misconduct.
It concluded that the response from both officers was insufficient since they left the collision site for another call without adequately searching for the driver or completing an accident report.
While it found no evidence that their actions led to Misner’s death, they determined that more steps should have been taken to find him, including failing to follow up after a wellness check indicated he hadn’t come home and couldn’t be contacted.
Although no procedural errors were noted, it was found that their response fell short; thus, they asked Chief Stubbs to decide on any potential misconduct.
The Ottawa Police Service Board plans to discuss this issue when it meets Monday evening.
Source link
