B.C.'s police watchdog has decided not to recommend charges against a Vernon police officer, despite the fact that his "significantly negligent" conduct may have contributed to a woman's death in 2020. 

The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. (IIO) probed a woman's Feb. 27, 2020 death at a Vernon hotel room, seeking to determine whether police action or inaction contributed to the death.

While the IIO did not release the name of the person who died in this case, the date and location aligns with the case of Kelowna woman Alishia Lemp, who was killed at the Best Value Inn and Suites in Vernon on Feb. 27, 2020. Paige Howse was sentenced to five years in jail for manslaughter in May in relation to Lemp's death.

According to the IIO's report on the matter issued Thursday, Aug. 8, RCMP received a 911 call in the afternoon of Feb. 27, 2020 about a potential assault at a Vernon motel. The officer at the centre of the investigation spoke with the caller by phone, but never met him in person. The officer went to the motel and met briefly with the manager, who assured him that everything was fine. The officer then left. 

The following evening, a woman was found dead in the room that had been the subject of the 911 call. 

The IIO investigation found that a civilian witness had called 911 the afternoon of the woman's death. The man said he'd heard a confrontation between two women from a room about five doors down from his room, about half an hour before he made the call to 911. 

As the witness was finishing the 911 call, the motel manager came to his door to ask what was wrong, having noticed the 911 call on the motel switchboard. The manager later told the IIO that the witness had said someone had been shouting but everything was okay.

A witness police officer happened to be surveilling the motel at the time for a different investigation. That officer watched the officer in question park at the motel and spend about three minutes in the office before leaving the scene without going to any of the guest rooms.

The IIO noted the police file was assigned priority three, which designates routine attention with no current threat to life of property. This resulted in a "significant delay" between the 911 call and the dispatch of an officer to the scene. The RCMP told IIO investigators that the delay was due to the fact that the witness had reported that the argument or assault was not currently occurring, but had rather been heard about 30 minutes earlier. 

The IIO said the dispatch delay raises concerns separate from the investigation of the officer's action or inaction, saying it will raise this as a potential policy issue with the RCMP.

The woman was found dead in the motel room around 8 p.m. Feb. 28, 2020, prompting a homicide investigation by RCMP Serious Crime officers. 

GPS data showed that the officer in question had remained stationary in his vehicle for about eight minutes after receiving a call to attend the motel. The officer explained to IIO investigators that GPS data "can show myself 100 km away from the physical location of scene, but ... it does not reflect that I am physically at the dispatch location of a report; I could be calling the complainant, contacting the subject of complainant, investigating previous history of involved people and location, or even report writing from this distance."

According to the report, IIO investigators were unable to determine whether the woman's death could have been prevented if the officer had attended the motel room after the 911 call. 

The IIO said it considered whether the officer had been "criminally negligent" in his investigation.

The watchdog said it was the officer's "clear duty" to personally investigate the scene and go to the motel room where the assault or disturbance had been reported, saying this would not have been "an onerous or complex task."

"He needed to find out what was going on, to determine whether a woman had been assaulted and whether the assault was potentially continuing. Instead of that, in the course of a brief and cursory conversation at the motel front desk, he effectively delegated that responsibility to the motel manager and then walked away," the IIO said. "These facts provide reasonable grounds to conclude that the (officer) was significantly negligent in the conduct of his duties on this occasion."

However, the IIO said it could not determine whether the officer's negligence actually contributed to the victim's death to a non-trivial degree. This was because it was unclear if the woman was already dead by the time the officer visited the motel, "or may have been healthy and not have been killed until later on." 

"As a result, there can be no proof that the (officer's) negligence played a role in her death," the IIO concluded. 

The IIO said accordingly, the matter would not be referred to Crown counsel for the consideration of charges.