Police investigate alleged “starlight tour”

The Saskatoon Police Service’s Professional Standards Division are investigating a complaint that on Jan. 21, Drayton Bull, 19, was picked up by police, dropped off on the outskirts of the city, and forced to walk in below -30 C. When he arrived at his father’s home, he was taken to hospital and treated for a concussion. In a news release, the SPS said that an initial investigation has shown that no SPS patrol units were outside the Saskatoon city limits within the time frame alleged. All police cars are equipped with GPS. The SPS will also be checking in-car camera video, which is automatically activated when the back door of a patrol car is opened, to determine if Bull was inside a patrol car. APTN reports that Bull “doesn’t remember much of what happened, including if he was in the back of a cruiser.” Bull said he was “highly intoxicated” when he left to walk to his father’s home. He recalls seeing a police car, being chased by a man in black pants and waking up at his father’s door. All his recollections are interspersed with black-out periods. The late-night practice of police officers dropping Aboriginal people off at out-of-the-way locations was dubbed “starlight tours” following the 2003 provincial government inquiry into the 1990 death of Neil Stonechild.