VicPD faces criticism after posting video of teens allegedly caught drinking

It’s an eight-second video showing a group of teens in Beacon Hill Park scattering when Victoria police officers arrive on a Friday evening.

The video, posted to VicPD’s Twitter account, alleges the group of teens is drinking alcohol, and the police department is now facing backlash for posting it online.

“I think for sure the police have a duty to maybe confiscate stuff like that, I take issue with making a social media post about it because I don’t think it’s necessary at all,” said Victoria mother Cleo Gagner.

Gagner has a 15-year-old son and she worries about what impact posting videos like that will have on how people judge teens in the city.

“I saw some of the comments on Twitter it was like ‘I saw 20 of them walk by my house,’ it’s like oh no, they were walking outside?” Gagner jokes.

The BC Civil Liberties Association is calling the video ‘disconcerting’.

“Can you imagine the police doing this to a group of middle-class adults having wine in the park?” asked BCCLA lawyer Meghan McDermott. “It is not normal at all for the police to record us when we’re doing that and then share it online.”

VicPD says the tweet was part of a live ride-along meant to deter youth violence and vandalism. During the night in other locations, they did seize weapons, arrest one youth for intoxication, and send another to hospital after drinking too much

With several serious and violent incidents in previous weeks, they admit the video, seen on its own, was lacking context.

“I think a lot of us can relate to being young and getting together in the community and getting up to all sorts of shenanigans, I think what’s missed there is the context of some of the heinous violence that had been taking place in the community,” said VicPD spokesperson Const. Cam MacIntyre.

READ MORE: VicPD investigating multiple incidents of youth violence

“It’s certainly not meant to paint all youths with the same brush but just to articulate we’ve been seeing these large groups over-consuming and then some problems in and around those areas to demonstrate to the public that this is something we’re out, we’re going to be present and working to make contact with those groups.”

MacIntyre says the video wasn’t blurred because it was taken from so far away that the teens can’t be identified. But McDermott argues that based on clothing, hair colour and movement it would be obvious to the teens’ friends and families. She’s calling for the video to be taken down and for VicPD to apologize.

VicPD says it doesn’t have any current plans to remove the video but after seeing a de-escalation in the level of youth violence and vandalism it will be reviewing whether the weekly targeted enforcement efforts are still required.

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