Officers praised for 'exceptional police work' after high-speed chase, jury told

A high-speed police chase through Westsyde that has a Kamloops Mountie standing trial in B.C. Supreme Court accused of dangerous driving was initially lauded as “exceptional police work,” a jury has been told.

RCMP Const. Christopher Squire’s trial got underway on Monday at the Kamloops Law Courts. The 33-year-old is charged with one count of dangerous driving in relation to his actions behind the wheel of an unmarked RCMP cruiser during a pursuit more than four years ago.

Court has heard Squire was one of a handful of officers involved in the pursuit of a stolen Ford pickup truck in the early morning hours of Dec. 8, 2018. The truck was stolen in Brocklehurst and Mounties located it on Singh Street, then followed it at upwards of 100 km/h on Ord Road toward Westsyde.

The chase intensified when the truck reached Westsyde Road. According to police dash-cam video shown to jurors — a copy of which was made public following an application in court by Castanet Kamloops — speeds reached 140 km/h before the pursuit was called off by an RCMP sergeant.

Crown prosecutor Jessica Saris said in her opening to the jury on Monday that RCMP policy does not allow for such pursuits when the offence being investigated is possession of stolen property.

On the video shown to jurors, Squire and another Mountie, Const. Lane Tobin, can be seen continuing to pursue the stolen pickup at high speed even after the order to call off the chase.

Jurors were told Squire eventually stopped the truck on Westsyde Road with a PIT maneuver — a police tactic in which a vehicle is intentionally run off the road and immobilized. That collision was captured on the dash-cam footage played in court and it can be seen at the end of the video clip accompanying this story.

Tobin’s cross-examination under defence lawyer Brad Smith got underway Monday and continued on Tuesday morning. Smith asked Tobin about the feedback he received immediately after the incident.

The constable said a high-ranking superior referred to the pursuit and arrest as “exceptional police work” during a briefing at the detachment the following day.

“I felt proud of the work we did. It was dynamic — we didn’t have a lot of time to make decisions in the circumstances,” Tobin said in court.

“We did a good job. No members of the public were hurt, no other vehicles were involved in the collision and the injuries to the suspect were really minor."

Tobin said the response to the incident quickly changed at the detachment. He said he and Squire were soon notified that they were the subject of a code-of-conduct investigation — an internal RCMP probe. The allegation, he said, was misuse of a police vehicle.

Tobin said he felt “demoralized” upon hearing news of the internal investigation. He said he and Squire were disciplined following the probe.

“So the two of you have already been punished for what you did that night?” Smith asked.

“Yes we have,” Tobin replied.

Smith showed jurors a dash-cam video from a different police vehicle showing a Mountie forced to veer out of the way of the stolen pickup on Ord Road.

In her opening statement to jurors Monday, Saris said the case is about “a police officer who failed to follow policy, disobeyed the orders of a superior and drove dangerously to pursue a suspect.”

Squire’s trial is expected to run for two weeks.