SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT
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On March 3, 2021, a 41-year-old female suffered a serious injury in the course of her arrest in Niagara Falls by a Niagara Regional Police Service (NRPS) officer. The arresting officer – the SO – was identified as a subject official for purposes of the SIU investigation.
According to SIU Director, Joseph Martino, “On my assessment of the evidence, there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the SO committed a criminal offence in connection with the woman’s arrest and injury.”
Full Director’s Report (with incident narrative, evidence, and analysis and director’s decision):
The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of officials (police officers as well as special constables with the Niagara Parks Commission and peace officers with the Legislative Protective Service) that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person. All investigations are conducted by SIU investigators who are civilians. Under the Special Investigations Unit Act, the Director of the SIU must
- consider whether the official has committed a criminal offence in connection with the incident under investigation
- depending on the evidence, cause a criminal charge to be laid against the official where grounds exist for doing so, or close the file without any charges being laid
- publicly report the results of its investigations
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