The Vancouver Police Department announced that it has officially updated its handcuffing policy, requiring officers to take into account a person’s age, ethnicity, and the seriousness of an alleged incident prior to applying handcuffs.
The announcement follows interim changes to the policy after a May 2021 incident that saw officers detain and handcuff the province’s first Black Supreme Court judge, Selwyn Romilly, while looking for another Black man half his age.
The policy itself was changed in October that same year and went into effect on an interim basis.
However, at the time, the Vancouver Police Board said it would be officially approved after recommendations from an investigation into Romilly’s case, as
