Edmonton Police Watch

An Edmonton police constable was suspended without pay for 35 hours for unnecessarily Tasering a man struggling with two other officers.

“He, in essence, created the misfortune for himself,” Supt. Mark Logar said of Const. Andrew Hoglund. “Nothing in the evidence suggests Const. Hoglund asked if help was needed,” said Logar, who oversaw the hearing.

“Const. Hoglund cannot justify his actions. The constable breezes in, applies the Taser, and disappears. This type of application of the Taser does not speak highly of the service.”

University student Robert Boik was leaving the Globe Bar and Grill at Jasper Avenue and 109th Street on Sept. 4, 2004, when his friend got involved in a fight. The first officer to arrive called for backup. Boik was arrested shortly after, when one of the officers asked him for identification and he refused.

Both officers arresting him had Tasers, but decided they weren’t needed to make the arrest. They didn’t realize Hoglund had Tasered the man.

The register on Hoglund’s Taser showed he used it, but his memory was “foggy” for the incident, he testified. He pleaded guilty to insubordination for forgetting to make notes.

The charge proven Thursday was unnecessary exercise of authority for using the Taser. The member representing the police service asked Logar to revoke a promotion awarded Hoglund in April 2007, which had been on hold for nearly two years pending the hearing.

Logar ruled he did not have the jurisdiction for that and the promotion is still up in the air. Police spokeswoman Patrycia Thenu said the chief’s committee will decide what to do next.

Boik sat through the decision and said he was satisfied, since Logar accepted his account of what happened.

“Glad this process is over,” he said. “I realize that they deal with crazy and unpredictable people, but being I was bent over the trunk of a police car, it’s absolutely outrageous I was Tasered.”

estolte@thejournal.canwest.com

© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal

via Officer loses week’s pay for exceeding authority.

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