Cellblock Video Rocks Ottawa Police

Clip of alleged abuse at the Ottawa police headquarters is another blow to a force already dealing with another damning cellblock video.

A judge ordered the release of a cellblock video yesterday that shows Ottawa police dragging a woman, Roxanne Carr, along the floor with her arms tied behind her back and pulling her hair, in another case of what appears to be less-than-professional behaviour from Ottawa's finest. Carr was arrested more than three years ago with assaulting police and damaging property. She claims police broke her wrist and arm during the arrest, and says she was humiliated during the cellblock processing, in which she says she was strip-searched and dealt with unnecessarily harshly. Charges against her were dropped, and the Special Investigations Unit cleared all the officers involved of any wrongdoing. But the video – which follows one released last year in which Ottawa police were shown to be manhandling a young woman in the cellblock –threatens to further undermine public confidence in the police force of the nation's capital. Judge for yourself. Carr is suing Ottawa police for $1 million.