Officer just doing his job by seizing media camera, judge told

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This article was published 02/11/2022 (1080 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg police officer wasn’t infringing on freedom of the press when he seized a photojournalist’s camera at a crime scene, a judge was told Wednesday.

He did what he needed to do during a “fast, fluid and dynamic” sequence of events that put the public in harm’s way, said Josh Weinstein, the officer’s lawyer.

“Police officers are often engaged in very stressful and fast-moving situations and dealing with people who don’t want to deal with them at all,” Weinstein told provincial court Judge Tony Cellitti. “This can make (police) vulnerable to allegations from the public.”

Chris Procaylo, a Winnipeg Sun photographer, filed a complaint with the Law Enforcement Review Agency after a police constable seized his camera following a heated exchange at a Main Street crime scene on Dec. 2, 2017.

Closing arguments were delivered on Wednesday after a five-day hearing in May.

The officer is accused of abusing his authority in three ways: by conducting an unreasonable seizure, by using abusive or oppressive language or behaviour, and by being “discourteous and uncivil.”

The civilian oversight hearing will determine whether the officer, whose name is protected under a publication ban, acted improperly. If there is a disciplinary finding, the publication ban on the officer’s identity is expected to be lifted in accordance with provincial law.

Procaylo testified in May that he had received a tip about a “ruckus” on the 800 block of Main Street downtown and arrived to see officers tending to an injured man inside a business while onlookers gathered around.

Procaylo said he was wearing a lanyard that clearly identified him as a media member and had moved back to the curb to be out of the way while he took photos with a telephoto lens. At that time, only a couple of police cruisers were at the scene. There was no large first responder presence and no police tape was up, he said.

Procaylo said paramedics were preparing to put an injured man into an ambulance when a general patrol officer yelled at him to move and “f—k off.”

Procaylo said he moved but the officer continued to yell at him, escalating to a “hostile” exchange during which the officer repeatedly asked him “why do you hate police?”

Procaylo remained on the scene, with the officer approaching him a short time later to tell him police were seizing his camera “as part of our investigation.” Procaylo said he turned over his camera and identification because he believed if he didn’t, it would be forcibly taken from him.

Police returned the camera later that day and apologized during a subsequent news conference.

The officer testified to a very different version of events, telling court last May that Procaylo was combative and refused to provide his press affiliation.

The officer said he arrived to a “chaotic scene with a number of emergency vehicles” and saw Procaylo snapping pictures.

The officer said he asked Procaylo to move two times but he didn’t move far enough away or in the direction he had indicated.

He said he told Procaylo to move a third time, at which point the photographer “walked slowly” past the window of the business and took bursts of photographs.

The officer told the hearing he cautioned Procaylo that he could be charged with obstructing justice and seized the camera to secure evidence of the incident. The officer said he had been told Procaylo got there before police and might have photos of one of two suspects who had chased the knife-brandishing man from across the street.

“The evidence supports that (the officer) was doing his job, dealing with a difficult member of the public, that being Mr. Procaylo, all the while dealing with the preservation of life,” Weinstein said Wednesday. “At the end of the day, what we are dealing with is the momentary seizure of a Winnipeg Sun camera that was then returned.”

Procaylo’s lawyer, Nicole Watson, urged Cellitti to reject the officer’s testimony and that of his partner, alleging they conferred with each other before preparing their police notes, which they tailored to fit their version of events.

“Clearly, they were written to justify a seizure that was not reasonable,” she said.

Watson said the officers’ claim they were not aware Procaylo was a member of the media until after his camera had been seized was “simply not credible,” noting it was in Procaylo’s interest to clearly identify himself as it “gave him the right to be there, to do what he was doing.”

The seizure of Procaylo’s camera showed “a complete lack of appreciation for the significance of the rights of the media,” Watson said.

“The fact police were at this event investigating a serious assault… does not mean you run roughshod over the legitimate interests of the party,” she said.

The judge will provide a written ruling on the case at a later date.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca