Email

Print

While Wade has chosen not to give a police report, ComPol said that the department will still need to address the issue and they are investigating it.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I was told about it yesterday and I had asked the Roaring Creek Police Commander to communicate with Mr Wade to see if he would be able to get some information from him in the form of a statement that we would be able to address the issue. I was later told that he had declined to give the report. Nonetheless I must say what was described on social media is not what we expect of our officers. The media, as much as you all may be a pain in the butt, you all have a job to do and we must respect that. To assault a member of the media while conducting your duties is intolerable so we much find a way to address it. I just won't dismiss because if I do, my friend from Channel 7 will say that I am acting with haste then you know the rest from there."

Reporter:
"The media being able to film these scenes, sometimes the officers don't get to put up crime scene tape."

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Well the officers should put up crime scene tape so that the media know what their barriers are. But even so, in the absence of crime scene tape being put up because sometimes the mobile that arrives first on the scene may not have the tape onboard, the officers will not be able to put up until a vehicle that does contain those tapes would arrive then I would expect that the media would exercise reasonable judgement in understanding that the police does have our work to do and keep quite a distance."

Jules Vasquez:
"And he was a distance away if you've seen the shot."

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Yeah, and so I will reiterate the fact that the media does have the right to be out there and to take photos or videos of scene so long as they're not doing so with a view to obstruct the work of the police."

Reporter:
"With a view to preventing this do you meet those officers because obviously the policy is not widespread within the department to give the media that right to do their work."

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"The policy is widespread, every police officer has a copy of that policy, it is widespread so I'm not going to accept that. But sometimes police tend to get overzealous in how they carry out their duties but they have no right to tell the media to delete any video footage that they have capture from a scene."

In 2023, the criminal code was amended so that any assault on public officers and journalists is automatically classified as aggravated assault.