The province’s police watchdog has deemed Orangeville Police handling of a holding cell overdose, to be non-criminal.
On June 1st, OPS responded to a medical call at a Church Street residence where OPS says an individual in medical distress was taken to hospital.
While at the scene, OPS also arrested a 36-year-old woman on a warrant for failing to attend court.
The Special Investigations Unit says investigation revealed the woman ingested cocaine inside the jail cell and fell into medical distress.
Paramedics rushed her to hospital in the early morning hours of June 2nd and she was placed on life support.
SIU Director Joseph Martino says the woman “ought to have been subjected to a more thorough search and medical attention should have been secured sooner than it was after she ingested cocaine in her cell.”
The report states that about half-an-hour had elapsed from the moment the woman had consumed cocaine in her possession until the first concrete step was taken to arrange for medical attention, which was “arguably too long”.
How the cocaine contraband got into the cell was also investigated.
According to the investigation, the woman was subjected to a search prior to being lodged in the cell however it wasn’t thorough enough to discover the cocaine.
The bag containing the drugs appeared to have been in the woman’s underwear, or anal or vaginal orifice.
The report went on to outline that if the bag was in her underwear, then OPS’s search was subpar.
Rather than conducting a palpable search, the officer had the woman pull her clothing away from her body and shake it out, which may have been done upon her complaints that a female officer should have searched her.
If that were the case, the SIU says OPS still should still have done a palpable search or found a female officer from another police service to do the job.
However, the SIU says it recognizes a strip search is invasive and degrading, and should be reserved for cases where there are reasonable and probable grounds to believe it is necessary.
Martino says he is unable to reasonably conclude that any of the officers who dealt with the woman transgressed the limits of care prescribed by the criminal law.
