Burnaby RCMP officers may not have committed a crime in the drug-related death of a woman in their custody, but B.C.'s police watchdog says the case "continues to raise concerns about how intoxicated prisoners are housed" in the province.
The Independent Investigations Office was called in to investigate the woman's death, which happened in Burnaby RCMP cells on March 7, according to a report released Thursday.
At 8:58 a.m. that morning, police got a report of an intoxicated woman at a local high school, the report said.
A witness told the IIO the woman had been asking students whether they had drugs. It was also reported she was "trying to fight someone" and had raised her fists at students.
Responding officers determined the woman, who is not named in the report, was the same woman they had arrested the night before and released that morning.
She had been arrested on March 6 for causing a disturbance in a restaurant and was held in cells because she was "intoxicated and unable to care for herself," according to the report.
She was allowed to leave cells at 8:25 a.m. on March 7, about 12 hours after her initial arrest.
As police were taking her back to cells for a second time, the woman begged an officer to take her home instead. When the officer refused, she asked to be taken to hospital.
"(The officer) did not take her to the hospital, believing that (the woman) did not require medical assistance, and only wanted to go to the hospital to avoid going to jail," stated the report.
During a police interview, the officer noticed the woman was ill but "did not think it was severe enough to take her to the hospital as she was not throwing up or experiencing diarrhea," according to the report.
Again, the officer did not tell the jail supervisor about his conversation with woman.
A civilian jail guard who checked on the woman said he believed she was breathing during all three of his checks before he noticed an issue with the woman at 4:15 p.m.
At that point, the woman was unresponsive and attempts to revive her were unsuccessful.
An autopsy determined the cause of death to be drug toxicity, but no drugs were found in the woman's cell or in the police vehicle that she was transported in, nor was she observed to be using drugs while in police custody.
Sandra Hentzen, the IIO's interim chief civilian director, concluded the overall situation did not meet the criminal standard to refer the case to Crown counsel for charges, but she said she would refer it to the RCMP and the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission to assess whether policy or training changes were needed to prevent similar situations from happening in the future.
"This case continues to raise concerns about how intoxicated prisoners are housed generally in British Columbia," Hentzen said. "Officers and jail guards are not trained medical personnel, and jail cells are not the best place for such prisoners."
Hentzen also noted the IIO doesn't currently have jurisdiction to investigate the actions of civilian jail guards.
"Legislation is in place that will change that in the future," she said.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on X/Twitter @CorNaylor
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