Prince George RCMP say that a city councillor’s recent ridealong with officers resulted in rules being broken both by police and the politician.
Just after 5:30 a.m. on Jan. 4, Coun. Kyle Sampson posted to his Facebook page that he’d spent a night out with local Mounties to learn about what they deal with on the job.
The post included three photos, two from the lobby of the RCMP detachment and a third showing Sampson sitting in a police vehicle, wearing a protective vest marked “police” while bathed in red light.
Speaking to The Citizen on Wednesday, Jan. 8, Prince George RCMP public affairs officer Cpl. Jennifer Cooper said that as a civilian, Sampson should not have been issued a vest identifying him as part of the police.
“He should not have been wearing that,” Cooper said. “He should have been, at most, given maybe an internal unmarked vest to wear, like one that he could wear underneath a jacket or underneath a shirt. Our officers have been given guidance on that protocol going forward.”
She said psychiatric nurses who sometimes accompany officers to calls wear Kevlar vests that are a different colour and say “nurse” instead of “police," adding that she doubted anyone would have known about the error if Sampson hadn't posted the photo.
“They wanted to offer him a modicum of protection based on being in a police vehicle, but perhaps neglected to think forward to the optics and the ramifications of a civilian wearing a vest labelled 'police' and have (now) been giving guidance about this issue," Cooper said
On top of that, she said Sampson should not have posted the photo of him wearing the vest as he had signed a document agreeing not to share photos from his ridealong. There are no issues with Sampson posting photos from inside the foyer of the police building.
“We did remind him that he was not supposed to take or post any photos while he was on the ridealong other than what was in the public domain already,” Cooper said.
The photo of Sampson wearing the vest was deleted on Wednesday, Jan. 8 after The Citizen first reached out to the RCMP.
Reached by phone on Thursday, Jan. 9. Sampson said that with policing being one of the city’s largest annual costs, he wanted to see what challenges local officers are facing, especially with budget deliberations on the horizon.
He said he had not asked for the vest but had been provided one by officers.
“The photo of myself, I didn’t think it was any issue but talking to the detachment, they just said it would be best if I just didn’t have it there,” Sampson said. “The post was meant to inform the public on what I’m doing as a councillor, to understand some issues in our community.”
He said he wouldn’t change anything “drastically” if he were to go on another ridealong, though he understands that taking photos of himself during them aren’t allowed.
As for what he saw on the ride-along, he said he wasn’t allowed to get into specifics, but saw an officer help an intoxicated man call a taxi to get a safe ride home and observed that Moccasin Flats was less busy than the last time he went out with police.
After Sampson said he had been offered the vest by police, The Citizen offered RCMP officer-in-charge Supt. Darin Rappel the opportunity to comment but was told he would let Cooper’s comments on the matter stand.
As the City of Prince George funds the activities of the local RCMP, The Citizen also reached out to city administration for comment but a spokesperson declined the offer.
"Given this ridealong was organized between the councillor and the RCMP with no involvement from the City’s administration we don’t have anything to add on the matter," they said.
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