RCMP officer apologizes for driving while drunk off-duty

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This article was published 23/05/2018 (2706 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A veteran police officer convicted of impaired driving said he’s trying to deal with the root causes of his alcohol abuse.

Cpl. Scott Hanson, a 17-year member of the RCMP in Manitoba, pleaded guilty in provincial court Wednesday to impaired driving. His erratic driving — over construction pylons, into an oncoming lane and onto the shoulder along the highway near Birds Hill Park — prompted an anonymous caller in another vehicle to report him to East St. Paul RCMP after 9 p.m. on Sept. 1, 2017.

“His driving, I think to describe it as anything other than atrocious is an understatement,” said Brandon-based Crown attorney Deidre Badcock during Hanson’s sentencing Wednesday.

He was fined $2,400, and received the minimum one-year driving prohibition. He said he hasn’t had a drink since the day he was arrested.

Hanson, 45, apologized in court to provincial court Judge Tracey Lord, to his wife and to the public.

“I clearly made an error in judgment when I was at my weakest. I’ve been taking steps to get better and I will be better,” he said.

“I pride myself on being a problem solver, not a problem maker,” Hanson added.

“It’s been a difficult time for me. I recognize I’m a police officer, but I’m a human first. I let myself down, I let my agency down, but most importantly, I let the public down. No one’s been more hard on themselves over this than I have. I just want to move on now and focus on getting better.”

The same day the charges against Hanson were made public by the RCMP, Winnipeg Police Service chief Danny Smyth held a news conference to address higher numbers of Winnipeg police officers accused of impaired driving. There were more city police officers arrested for drunk driving last year than there were over the past 10 years combined, according to WPS data.

Hanson, who was off-duty in his personal vehicle, was driving back from a charity golf event that Labour Day long weekend when officers responding to a call about an erratic driver eventually pulled him over. But the RCMP vehicle trying to intercept him first had to swerve out of the way as Hanson sped down the road at 150 km/hr in a 90 km/hr zone and crossed the centre line. Officers didn’t find liquor bottles in the vehicle, but they noticed a puddle of liquid in the cupholder that smelled of whiskey. Hanson had spilled liquid on his clothes and took several minutes to get out his driver’s licence. He had trouble walking to the police vehicle and refused to take a breathalyzer or give a blood sample.

“No, I will not,” he told officers clearly, court heard.

Wednesday’s court appearance was initially scheduled as a curative discharge hearing, which spares eligible impaired drivers from a criminal conviction on their record if they receive treatment for their addictions.

But Hanson did not ask for a curative discharge Wednesday. His defence lawyer, Josh Weinstein, indicated in court that Hanson may not have been eligible. Judge Lord imposed the fine and one-year driving ban as recommended by Crown and defence lawyers.

Both Badcock and Weinstein spoke about work-related trauma that may have been at the root of Hanson’s alcohol use. Weinstein said his client is on medical leave from the RCMP and is expected to face an internal conduct hearing. He is dealing with mental-health issues including post-traumatic stress and severe depression, Weinstein told court.

“We put these individuals in harm’s way and to some extent they become broken by what they do, and then we expect them to sort of be heroes,” Weinstein said, noting Hanson has been awarded for bravery during his policing career. “And then we should be mindful not to throw the hammer at them when they fall.”

Hanson’s conduct has the potential to make the public lose faith in police, Badcock said, noting it was simply “luck” that no one was killed. But she said more attention is being paid to police officers’ trauma and how they deal with it.

“What really, I think, separates him from other offenders in his situation is that he has recognized there’s a problem from the get-go with this, and has not had any drink since this occurred in September,” she said.

Judge Lord told Hanson she accepts that society’s high expectations of police officers can be “a heavy burden.”

“Police officers and other members of the justice system are held to a higher standard than other members of society and the community is entitled to have certain expectations of you that they don’t have of other citizens, and that’s just the way it is,” Lord said.

His impaired-driving conviction may turn out to be a defining moment for Hanson’s employment as a police officer, “but it doesn’t have to be a defining moment in terms of your entire life, and you’re certainly taking very positive, meaningful and effective steps to make sure that that doesn’t happen,” Lord told him.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay