Mounties under review after posing with 'flirting' women
David Wylie , CanWest News Service
Published: Saturday, October 13, 2007
Police are conducting a review after two University of British Columbia campus RCMP officers were photographed allowing a small group of young women to play with their handcuffs and sit in their squad car.
The pictures, which were snapped July 1, surfaced Thursday in the university's student-run newspaper, the Ubyssey.
They show the officers -- in full uniform and clearly on duty -- hugging five young women, handcuffing them and smiling widely for the camera. Another photo shows two women handcuffed together. And in several more, the women are sitting in the back of a squad car.
B.C. RCMP spokeswoman Const. Annie Linteau confirmed Friday the officers are both stationed at the RCMP's UBC campus detachment, and are under review -- but not under "investigation."
"We're reviewing the circumstances surrounding the incident," she said. "It would be done very likely by the head of the detachment."
Linteau said she was unaware of any RCMP policy governing the use of police equipment, such as handcuffs, or any policy regulating when and why people can sit inside squad cars.
Under the discipline section of the RCMP Act, however, officers are expected to "act at all times in a courteous, respectful and honourable manner," to "avoid any actual, apparent or potential conflict of interests" and to "maintain the honour of the force and its principles and purposes."
UBC student Davor Kovac, who witnessed the scene, declined to comment Friday. However, he previously told the Ubyssey that about 20 people were waiting at a bus stop near the university when the officers pulled up.
Some of those waiting had open liquor, said Kovac, adding the officers asked them to pour out their drinks.
"Then all of the girls just started flirting with the cops, really badly," he told the student paper.
This went on for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, Kovac said some in the group continued to drink alcohol - until he exclaimed loudly: "This is the most unprofessional thing I've ever seen."
One of the officers then asked Kovac to pour out his drink. "Then he just kept posing for the pictures with the girls," Kovac said, adding the young women "playfully" asked the officers to handcuff them.
UBC student Robin Race was also there and told the Ubyssey that the police were doing nothing to stop the drinking.
"They were just too preoccupied by the girls ... it was really unprofessional," he said.
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