SIU terminates investigation of Peel officer in Brampton man’s overdose

The Special Investigations Unit say they have terminated an investigation into the death of a 50-year-old man in Brampton after a Peel police officer administered naloxone.

The SIU says Peel police responded to a medical assistance call around 11 p.m. on April 27 in the area of Main Street North and Queen Street West.

When officers arrived, they began CPR and one administered the overdose-reversing Narcan nasal spray. Paramedics then arrived and took over care of the man. He was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The SIU launched an investigation soon after and have now cleared the officer of any wrongdoing.

Director Tony Loparco said, “The police officer’s sole contact with the man consisted of attempting to perform life-saving measures, which unfortunately were not successful.”

This is the third death involving the police administration of naloxone that has been investigated by the province’s police watch dog. The SIU invokes its mandate when police are involved in cases where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.

Two other investigations were launched for similar incidents — one on March 12 in Brampton and a second on April 5 in Mississauga.

In both of those cases as well, the SIU found that naloxone administration did not contribute to the deaths.

After the second investigation was launched, the head of the Peel Regional Police Association said the SIU should not be involved in such cases.

“It’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” said Adrian Woolley at the time. “It’s unreasonable for officers to be under investigation, when they’re just administering lifesaving techniques. First responders are not under the same scrutiny that we are. We understand (that there is oversight) and accept it. But this I think goes above and beyond…”

A few days following the announcement of the the first investigation in March, Premier Kathleen Wynne said changes will be made to the Police Services Act to address the issue.

“There are actually changes in our Police Services Act that will address this because we are saying to front line workers ‘you need to be able to administer naloxone and you shouldn’t be afraid to do that, we trust your professionalism’,” said Wynne “So there are changes that we are bringing forth in the Police Services Act that will address that.”

Earlier this month, the Ministry of the Attorney General confirmed to CityNews that it is writing the new regulation and hopes to have it in place by this summer.