Marcel Schauer/Dreamstime

By Eli J. Ridder

Medicine Hat taxi driver’s complaints against officer dismissed by Alberta review board

Sep 24, 2024 | 4:30 PM

A Medicine Hat taxicab driver’s allegation of extortion against an officer who pulled him over three times in 2023 for not wearing a seat belt has been dismissed by the Alberta Law Enforcement Review Board.

Medicine Hat police Const. Jordan Wyton issued a ticket to taxi driver Jason Robinson on July 17, 2023, for a failure to wear a seatbelt, according to a ruling from the review board.

It was when Robinson was stopped again that he began to make accusations, the board wrote.

The driver received second ticket on Nov. 2 for not wearing a seatbelt and operating a vehicle without active registration.

Wyton gave him a warning after Robinson was unable to produce active insurance.

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When he was informed by Wyton he must wear a seatbelt when he doesn’t have a passenger, Robinson claimed it was an excuse for the officer to give him a ticket and called it extortion, according to the review board.

The taxi driver was stopped for a third time on Dec. 16 and received a formal warning for failing to wear a seatbelt.

The driver refused to communicate with Wyton and said he would only do so if a supervisor or someone from mental health was present, the review board wrote.

Another officer then attended and Robinson told that officer that he was exempt from wearing a seatbelt and that Wyton was intimidating and harassing him.

The driver said that “the passenger thing is just an excuse they use to extort money from me.”

That same day in December, Robinson filed a complaint against Wyton.

Medicine Hat’s police chief, Alan Murphy, dismissed the complaint. The driver then appealed to the review board.

The board concluded the appear was both frivolous and vexatious and decided to dismiss it.

It found Robinson’s belief that he was exempt from wearing a seatbelt to be incorrect, as the law only provides exemptions for taxi drivers when they are transporting passengers.

Body camera footage from the stops disproved the appellant’s claims that Wyton was harassing and extorting him, according to the review board.

Enforcing the law does not constitute harassment, the board wrote.

They pointed out the driver’s original complaint was related to his disagreement with the seatbelt law instead of misconduct by the officer.

The review board determined there was no reasonable prospect of success for the appeal as the arguments lacked substance and not grounded in evidence.

Thus, “the appeal is dismissed on the basis that it is frivolous and vexatious,” the board concluded.

It was not immediately clear if the applicant was employed or is still employed at any of the Medicine Hat’s major taxi companies, or if he was or is an independent operator.

CHAT News has requested comment from the Medicine Hat Police Service.