CREDIBILITY - POLICE NOTES AND OFFICER TESTIMONY

The Alberta Court of Appeal has given another example of how keeping careful police notes and being prepared to testify can lead to a conviction at trial:

At trial, the applicant argued that the constable’s testimony was not reliable and he was not credible because his testimony about certain indicia of impairment did not align with the timing of his observations in his notes. The trial judge reviewed three possible uses of police notes and ultimately held that, in this case, the constable was using his notes only to refresh his own independent recollection and that independent recollection was the actual evidence before the court. The trial judge concluded that the constable was credible as his evidence “was clear, firm, direct, and completely unmoved on cross-examination.”  R. v. Hausauer, 2014 ABCA 47