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There are numerous reported Canadian cases in which peace officers have used view- ings of video recordings of crimes-in-progress as reasonable grounds for believing a person has committed an indictable offence and have made arrests. There are clearly no issues here as peace officers can arrest based on reason- able ground to believe a crime was com- mitted, and put together a case based on circumstantial evidence.
Should security guards and loss preven- tion officers be permitted to use the “real time” viewings to satisfy the requirement of “finds committing?” In light of the Chen case and the high quality of today’s video equip- ment, perhaps it is time to take another look at this. When the latest incarnation of Bill C- 60 is introduced and debated, hopefully the question of security/citizen’s arrest based on “real time” viewing of crimes will be put for- ward. Don’t count on it though as any changes to a citizen’s arrest to allow for this is still the purview of the police.
Where authorities already exist for police to arrest and prosecute based on reasonable grounds, it does not make sense that the gov- ernment would sanction persons who, respect- fully said as a security training expert myself, are in some cases not trained as well as a police of- ficer, to confront a criminal and force an alter- cation that perhaps could otherwise be avoided. The amendment of S.494 will affect all se- curity professionals. This is an extremely im- portant change and one we will discuss in a future column. Just remember, changes to sections 34 to 42 of The Criminal Code re- lated to the use of force are still pending. This directly impacts Defence of Persons S34 and Defence of Property S35 in the Criminal code, which begin with: “A person is not guilty of an offence if…”
In other words, the onus has swung clearly on persons using force to justify what they are doing and why, rather than stating authorities that justify such actions. It will simplify what has been described in the courts as “un- wieldy, confusing, highly technical and ex- cessively detailed provisions deserving of much criticism.”
Mike Burgess is the president of M.D. Burgess and Associates (
www.securitytrain-
ingsupport.com) and a court recognized subject matter expert in security training and the use of force. He can be reached at
mike@burgessandassoc.com.
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