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(KIM ANDERSON / iNFOnews.ca)

The body that polices the police in the province is asking prosecutors to consider charges against a member of the B.C. Highway Patrol based in Merritt.

The report being forwarded to the Crown said reasonable grounds exist to believe the officer may have committed an offence in relation to the operation of their police vehicle, according to an Independent Investigations Office of B.C. media release issued today, June 15.

Back on Oct. 27, 2021, the highway patrol member tried to pull over a southbound Honda near the intersection of Highway 5 and 5A near Merritt. The release doesn’t indicate why the officer had initiated the traffic stop.

The officer discontinued the traffic stop and the Honda was involved in a crash with another vehicle “some distance away,” the report said.

The male passenger in the Honda has serious injuries and the driver was also hurt.

The independent investigations office reviewed the evidence and decided there were no reasonable grounds the officers actions were the cause of the crash, but there were reasonable grounds the officer committed an offence in connection to the operation of their police vehicle.

The release doesn’t say what offence the officer committed.

The investigations office is asking the Crown to consider charges and points out prosecutors must be convinced charges would be in the public interest and there must be substantial likelihood of conviction based on the evidence.

The Independent Investigations Office is the civilian oversight agency of the police in B.C. It investigates all officer-related incidents that result in serious harm or death, whether or not there is any allegation of wrongdoing.

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