Halifax Regional Police seeks public input on officers altering uniforms at protest

Police Chief Dan Kinsella says the HRP would be ‘happy to hear’ from people who have information about officers removing their name tags or wearing thin blue line patches

HALIFAXtoday \  Chris Stoodley

Halifax Regional Police is seeking information from the public about officers altering their uniforms at the protest on Wednesday.

“The policy of the Halifax Regional Police is that officers will wear their identification name tags unless there’s some extenuating circumstance that would prevent that,” Chief Dan Kinsella told reporters at a media availability on Thursday. “In this particular case, we are reviewing the situation in its entirety.”

On Wednesday, violence erupted at the old Halifax Memorial Library between HRP and protesters as officers forcibly removed and demolished a pair of wooden shelters built for homeless people.

Police officers were equipped with riot gear, deployed pepper spray and arrested more than a dozen people.

Hundreds of people had made their way to the old library on Spring Garden Road to prevent the demolition of the structures. However, one was removed and the other was demolished on-site with sledgehammers and a chainsaw.

During the protest, HalifaxToday witnessed many officers not wearing name tags. When asked, some officers said their name tags had been ripped off while others did not respond.

A couple of officers had also been wearing thin blue line patches in place of their name tags; it’s a symbol banned by the RCMP and other police forces for signifying a solidarity among police and creating an us vs. them mentality.

Kinsella said officers are only supposed to wear what’s issued and supplied by the HRP.

“If anyone that was there that has further details or specific information, please reach out,” he said. “We’d be happy to hear from them and their experience.”

He said people can contact the HRP’s professional standards division or they can reach out directly to Kinsella.

He added that the HRP would follow up with people who reach out to the force.

At Thursday’s media availability, Kinsella announced 24 people had been arrested in connection to Wednesday’s protest.

Those people, who were released Wednesday evening with a court date, will face charges such as resisting arrest, mischief, obstruction and assaulting police.

“I want to remind everybody, assaultive behaviour, planned, projectiles, they were prepared to decontaminate themselves at the scene if sensory irritant was deployed,” Kinsella said on Thursday. “And further to that, a number of my officers were assaulted yesterday, kicked, punched head-butted and that’s the situation that they were faced with, and they responded appropriately.”

People can contact the HRP’s professional standards office on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 902-490-4127. The office can also be reached by email at hrpprofstand@halifax.ca.