Peel Regional Police are imploring social media users to not post real-time photos or videos of officers responding to potentially dangerous situations where lives could be at risk.
Peel police Const. Tyler Bell-Morena delivered the message on Tuesday while speaking to reporters about an incident on Monday night that drew a heavy police response to the University of Toronto Mississauga campus.
A 19-year-old man armed with a gun had barricaded himself inside a student residence and for several hours did not respond to police officers’ negotiating efforts to have him surrender peacefully. Shortly after 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, officers found the suspect dead inside the residence from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Numerous police officers who responded to the dangerous weapon call at the Mississauga Road/Dundas Street area campus shortly after 9 p.m. moved themselves into position both inside and outside the McLuhan Court student residence.
As the police operation unfolded, various images taken by bystanders of police officers’ tactical positions began to appear on various social media platforms.
Prior to taking questions from the media on Tuesday at University of Toronto Mississauga, Bell-Morena addressed police concerns related to the photos on social media.
“We saw many members of the public uploading images of the position of police officers during this active incident. This is a blatant safety concern; doing so puts our officers in harm’s way and (jeopardizes the safety of) any potential victims or hostages inside,” he said.
“Fortunately in this case, there were no hostages. But this does not change the fact that this is inherently dangerous.”
Continuing, Bell-Morena acknowledged that while Canadians have a constitutionally protected right to film on-duty police officers, “that right ends the second it interferes with a police operation or compromises the safety of people involved.”
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He added it’s not uncommon to have a barricaded suspect “resort to online means to determine the location and tactics of officers to gain an advantage or the means of their escape.
“So we’d like you to consider that before you post these things,” Bell-Morena said. “We understand these incidents are interesting and they’re (considered) cool. Post them after the incident has been declared safe.”
The armed man who hid from police inside the student residence on Monday night was not a student at UTM, police said, adding they’re looking into who he may have been visiting.
Police said he’d been involved in an intimate partner violence incident on Monday afternoon in Brampton prior to winding up at the Mississauga university campus.
The province’s Special Investigations Unit, which probes incidents involving police and the public that result in serious injury or death, has invoked its mandate and is looking into the incident.
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