Last week, the Weyburn Police Service was requested by the Saskatchewan RCMP to be the external investigators after a man died while in custody at the Outlook RCMP detachment.

Weyburn Police Chief Marlo Pritchard explained third parties like the Weyburn Police Service are called in to investigate situations like this.

“It always looks better if there’s somebody else; you’re not investigating yourself,” Chief Pritchard said. “So if something happened here, and we had a death in our cells, we’d be reaching out to Regina, Saskatoon, RCMP; we wouldn’t be investigating it ourselves, so this is no different.”

Pritchard added the reason an external investigator is called in for situations like this is to ensure transparency and to maintain public confidence in the process.

The Weyburn Police Service isn’t the only organization tasked with looking into the case.

“In this case, Weyburn is the external investigator. Under section 91 of The Police Act, there’s an independent observer that also reviews the file, and reviews the situation and that person is appointed by government,” Pritchard elaborated.

As for why the Weyburn Police Service was chosen, he explained there wasn’t a specific reason why. He pointed out they don’t always go to the major centres like the Regina Police Service or Saskatoon Police Service.

The investigation is handled with an officer from the Weyburn Police Service being assigned the file. The officer responsible will conduct the case as he would any other investigation, as part of his regular duties. The officer has been to Outlook and has conducted interviews.

The investigation is still ongoing.