Legal Issues In Policing

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses a question he was asked recently and uses the Saskatchewan  Court of Appeal decision R. v. Ratt, 2020 SKCA 19   to inform his response . Police officers, and judges, must be careful not to confuse or conflate what justifies an investigative detention or arrest with what constitutes detention or arrest i...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Ontario Court of Appeal decision R. v. Francis , 2022 ONCA 729 where police arrested a man on an outstanding arrest warrant and searched the vehicle he was driving, discovering a loaded pistol and drugs in the process. This was followed up with a strip search at the police station and more drugs wer...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Ontario Court of Appeal decision R. v. Ahmed , 2022 ONCA 640 where police officers detained the occupants of a vehicle matching the description of one suspected of being involved in gunfire. When an officer leaned in the car through its open door and lit up its interior with a flashlight,  he saw a...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the BC Court of Appeal decision R. v. Chen , 2022 BCCA 296 where it is considered a “best practice” for a police affiant to educate an authorizing judge about how the law operates in an application to intercept private communications. Although an affidavit may satisfy the requirements that trigger the e...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the BC Supreme Court decision R. v. Castle , 2022 BCSC 1292 where a police officer conducted a pat-down search of a cyclist who was riding his bike at night without a helmet or lights on his bike. Not only did the officer pat-down the cyclist, he removed a small box from the cyclist’s front hoodie pocke...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike responds to a listener's question about a wife's surreptitious "search" of her husband's cell phone on which she locates child pornography, prints off screen shots of the images and brings them into the police station to report what she found.  The Alberta Court of Appeal  decision of R....

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Ontario Court of Appeal decision R. v. Williams , 2022 ONCA 596 where a panel of three  judges had to determine whether the arrest of the accused, prompted by informer information, was based on reasonable grounds. Listen for yourself and see how the Appeal Court applied the 3 C's to assessing t...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike responds to a listener's question about the validity of a penile swab. The Supreme Court of Canada decision of R. v. Saeed , 2016 SCC 24 is discussed as well as academic and reference material in the area of penile swabs and DNA collection. Croatian Medical Journal - Analysis of DNA Evidence Recovered from E...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike highlights recent public opinion polls amongst Canadians and how they view police officers when compared to other actors in the legal system. You might be pleasantly surprised! Mike also uses a recent OPCC decision as an example of how the media failed to cover the ultimate outcome of a complaint against two offi...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Ontario Court of Appeal decision R. v. Sillars , 2022 ONCA 510 where a panel of three  judges had to determine whether a canoe was a vessel such that the impaired operation and testing provisions of the Criminal Code applied. Also examined in this episode is the extent to which the right to counsel...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Quebec Court of Appeal decision R. v. Leventis , 2022 QCCA 291   where a panel of three  judges had to determine whether an arrest for drug possession was justified based on an anonymous tip of drug trafficking, along with suspicious observations, when viewed through the lens of the officer's e...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the BC Court of Appeal decision R. v. Choi , 2021 BCCA 410 where a panel of three  judges had to determine whether a search conducted of a drug arrestee while he was booked into police cells amounted to a "strip search" such that the guidelines enunciated by the Supreme Court of Canada in Gold...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Supreme Court of Canada decision R. v. Tim , 2022 SCC 12 . In it, Canada's top court had to decide: (1) whether a police officer’s mistake of law rendered an arrest unlawful and therefore  arbitrary under s. 9 of the Charter;  (2) if so, whether the subsequent searches of the arrestee were auth...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Alberta Court of Appeal decision R. v. Bidlock-Hawkins , 2022 ABCA 201 where, during a Charter voir dire, a trial judge concluded the police had used excessive force and then had to decide an appropriate remedy under s. 24 of the Charter. This episode may help you understand how s. 25 of the Crimina...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Ontario Court of Appeal decision, R. v. Smith , 2022 ONCA 439 where police arrested the accused for drug possession, towed his vehicle back to the station and pried open a locked box - described as a safe - in which heroin, fentanyl and meth were found inside. Was prying open the "safe" wi...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Nova Scotia Supreme Court decision R. v. Arsenault , 2022 NSSC 149   involving a vehicle  inventory search in which a loaded handgun was found in a glovebox and uses it as a basis to take a deep dive into these type of searches and how you can protect your searches from Charter challenge.  Thanks fo...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Supreme Court of Canada reasoning in R. v. Ali, 2022 SCC 1 and the standard required to justify a strip search incidental to an arrest. "Where a strip search is conducted as an incident to a person’s lawful arrest, there must be reasonable and probable grounds justifying the strip search, in ad...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. Are you case law curious? If you're a cop, you should be. In this episode Mike explains the mission behind the podcast and why every police officer should study, learn and understand case law. This is for cops about cops.  Thanks for listening! Feedback welcome at legalissuesinpolicing@gmail.com