FRANCIS PROMISES STRIP SEARCH REVIEW

Ruling Threw Out Charges Over 'Illegal' Practice

Mayor Eddie Francis says he plans to look into Windsor police strip
search practices after a Superior Court judge ruled that four strip
searches conducted locally two years ago were illegal.

" I take the comments made by the court very seriously," Francis, who
chairs the Windsor Police Services Board, said Wednesday. "And the
board and myself will raise those issues and questions and ask for a
response." Speaking one day after the court ruling, Francis said that
he could not comment further until the drug trafficking case which
spawned the strip-search decision concludes.

Superior Court Justice Renee Pomerance ruled Tuesday that the Sept.
14, 2009, strip search of three men and a woman, who were visiting an
apartment for which Windsor police had a search warrant, were
unconstitutional. Nothing was found on the suspects, who were released
without charges.

Pomerance said that the visitors were not described in the warrant and
that for police to conduct "inherently degrading" strip searches, they
must have a higher level of probable grounds. Possible grounds, she
said, are not enough.

But Pomerance ruled that a strip search conducted on a fifth person,
Bart Alec Muller, was legal, since he was described in the search
warrant, based on information from two informants, as a drug dealer
with narcotics on him. As well, police saw him discard a drug scale
and said he was evasive when questioned.

The strip search found 39.5 grams of crack cocaine, 23.7 grams of
cocaine and 12 oxycodone tablets in a baggie in the suspect's buttocks.

Pomerance also said she was concerned that an officer estimated on the
stand that Windsor police strip search about 50 per cent of suspects
arrested in drug cases. Defence lawyer Kirk Munroe argued that Muller
was subject to unfair search and seizure, though his client must now
stand trial on three counts of possession of drugs for the purpose of
trafficking.

Windsor police Deputy Chief Jerome Brannagan said he must wait until
the Muller case has ended before commenting on the department's strip
search policy.

Munroe said he thinks more Windsor defendants might now challenge the
legality of their strip searches in light of Pomerance's ruling.

In the case of Ian Golden, who was strip searched at a fast-food
restaurant in Toronto in 2001, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that
such searches must be reasonable. The court said the searches must be
based on probable grounds that contraband or weapons are being
concealed, have approval from a senior officer and be conducted in
private. Records of the search must be kept, the court said.

University of Windsor Prof. David Tanovich, the lawyer who brought the
Golden case to the Supreme Court before moving to Windsor in 2003,
believes many police forces will review their training and policies
now that strip searches are gaining so much attention.

Strip searches are making headlines in Toronto this week after
statistics showed that 60 per cent of people arrested in Toronto are
strip searched -- and that two-thirds of those cases don't produce
contraband.