No action taken on Mounties pointing stun guns at themselves and civilian: Police watchdog

Mounties who were in hot water for pointing unloaded stun guns at each other and a civilian employee are off the hook.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team investigated a complaint from October 2019 at the Elk Island RCMP detachment east of Edmonton.

Back in 2019, a civilian employee complained that a stun gun was pointed at her several times because she could see a “red dot” on her body.

One officer testified that the officers had pointed their stun guns at each other as “a joke at times,” but it wasn’t loaded with a cartridge so it could not discharge.

The Alberta Crown Prosecution Service looked at the case but recommended against filing any charges.

ASIRT assistant executive director Matthew Block says no action will be taken, but that doesn’t mean it was acceptable behaviour.

“A person can still be threatened,” he writes.

“There is evidence of misuse of conducted energy weapons in Elk Point detachment. Such matters are outside of the scope of ASIRT and are more properly dealt with by the RCMP internally.”

-With files from The Canadian Press