Yukon RCMP were aware that two officers at the Carcross detachment feared for their safety months before one of them went into a rage and beat up an intoxicated, handcuffed man.

They should have communicated with the community and taken better care of the officers, Carcross/Tagish First Nation (CTFN) chief Dan Cresswell told the Star Thursday.

“Did they trust us enough to (communicate) ?” he asked.

Last week, territorial court was told about how both Const. Jason Potter and Dan Rouleau were allowed to bring their handguns home because they feared for their safety.

That required a special authorization from the RCMP.

The force approved and paid for video surveillance of the two members’ homes.

They paid for a 10-foot high fence for Potter’s backyard.

“If they’re that paranoid and that stressed-out and they’re packing a weapon, something is gonna go wrong sooner or later,” Cresswell said.

Potter, 38, was sentenced last Friday for assaulting Duke Beattie in May 2015.

His defence team said the officer flew into a rage after Beattie allegedly made threatening comments about Potter’s wife.

He received a conditional sentence and is on duty in Whitehorse.

“Somebody (in the RCMP) should have clued in, ‘yeah maybe we should visit these guys,’ ” Cresswell said.

The cameras in Potter’s cruiser recorded the assault.

The Star was granted access to the video.

Lasting about an hour, it shows the time between when Beattie is taken into custody by Potter and Rouleau to the time he is admitted to the Whitehorse Correctional Centre (WCC).

Beattie is clearly intoxicated, and yells from time to time at the officers.

“You know who I am, man?” Beattie yells.

Fourteen minutes into the video, he starts kicking the pannel separating him from the officers.

“Duke, I suggest you stop,” Potter says.

At 17 minutes into the video, Beattie says something, but it’s not clear what exactly because of the poor quality of the police audio recording.

Potter brakes the vehicle suddenly, sending Beattie and objects in the trunk bouncing around.

The officer opens the left passenger door and jumps on Beattie, who is sitting on the right hand side of the seat.

Potter’s big stature hides Beattie’s face, but it’s clear the officer is either punching or slapping the man from the movements of his arms and shoulders. His left hand is either holding Beattie by the collar or choking him.

“You got something to say about my f-----g wife? You f-----g hear me?” the officer screams at the top of his lungs while assaulting Beattie.

“I’m gonna f-----g kill you, right there, do you hear me?”

Rouleau can be heard calling Potter’s name, telling him to stop.

“You f-----g piece of s---!” Potter yells.

“I’ll f--- you right up. Do you hear me? I’ll f--- you right up.”

The assault lasts about 38 seconds.

Potter lets go of Beattie, gets back in the car and drives for a couple of minutes.

He is breathing heavily. Rouleau suggests to take a break and let him drive.

They stop and go outside, presumably to talk.

During that time, Potter’s mic is switched off.

They get back in the car and Rouleau drives to WCC.

Every Yukon community except for Whitehorse, Watson Lake and Dawson City has only three RCMP members at any time.

There is usually one on duty, one on call, and one on training or away, and they all live in the community they police.

That leads to pressure and limited opportunities to socialize, presiding Judge Heino Lilles noted during the sentencing hearing last week in Carcross.

“We should point out, just maybe, that was a contributing factor to the end result here,” he said, making it clear it wasn’t an excuse for the officer’s behaviour.

“We create a situation, artificial and unresolvable, in these communities, where these individuals are put in a very difficult situation.”

Lilles noted he had seen it over and over again in the Yukon for 20 years.

In a letter filed to the court, Rouleau confirmed the challenges they faced.

The isolation and the fact all members are either on duty or on call adds to the stress, he wrote.

“Even when all three of us were in the community, never would two of us be off at the same time, so we could never just sit back and relax and have a few drinks, for example, or take off somewhere together.

“Every time I had a negative article in the paper, it could be found posted at the band office; that in my mind adds to the hostility of the community towards the police.”

A letter filed by Potter’s wife, Meghan, to the court shed light on how quickly the situation deteriorated.

At first, she welcomed her husband’s posting in the small community.

But it didn’t take too long for problems to arise, about six months after they had moved there.

Their house was right by residents Potter had to deal with, and its location didn’t offer a lot of privacy. That lead Potter to apply for a fence.

Neighbours would swear so much that Meghan Potter had to keep her son inside.

At some point, she said she saw Beattie walking down the street with another man.

“I would enjoy a raping,” she alleges Beattie said.

“I didn’t take this as a loose statement; however I chose to not inform Jason right away but, after due consideration, I informed him a few months after the incident,” Meghan Potter wrote.

More threats and comments forced her to move back to Whitehorse with her children.

“We were no longer able to walk in Carcross by ourselves without feeling concerned or unsafe,” she wrote.

In 2014, the CTFN asked the RCMP to crack down on drugs in the community.

The force did, but without any additional support, Meghan Potter wrote. That resulted in a heavier workload for her husband.

The initiative lead to growing animosity from some members of the community toward the police, she wrote. Potter and another officer were threatened, again.

“It is my understanding that Jason went through RCMP channels and communicated this specific threat to his superiors,” she wrote.

“Response was not immediate, which left Jason feeling isolated and unsupported.”

Only once back in Whitehorse did she realize how stressed she had been in Carcross.

“I took me several months to feel like I didn’t have to look over my shoulder in anticipation of negative encounters,” she wrote.

For the Mounted Police Professional Association of Canada, one of two organizations seeking to become a union for RCMP members, it’s just another example of safety failures on the force’s part.

If an officer doesn’t feel safe and is at risk, then the public is not adequately protected, said MPPAC spokesperson Rob Creasser.

“If the officer feels that not only he but his family is at risk, (the RCMP) should have gotten him out of the community,” he told the Star.

“Why did it have to get to that point?”

To the RCMP’s credit, they have worked to encouraged front line officers to seek help when in distress, he said.

But he questioned the level of services available for officers in small and remote communities.

“The pressures on the members of the RCMP working the front lines have never been greater,” Creasser said.

“Sooner or later, things are going to go wrong.”

Following a Supreme Court of Canada ruling in their favour last year, the MPPAC is seeking to have a collective bargaining agreement for its members.

But there is one thing excluded from the negotiation table: resourcing.

And that’s the number one problem in the RCMP, he said.

“The merit of staffing model, I’m not getting into that discussion,” Yukon RCMP Superintendent Brian Jones told the Star today.

“We understand the challenges of unfettered time off – we ask a lot of our members stationed in communities.”

No decision to transfer them was made, he acknowledged. He can’t say what was decided at the time as he wasn’t part of the decision.

Jones said he recognizes the pressure officers in small communities face.

“We’re reaching out to our employees; we’re staying in touch,” he said.

RCMP members have access to a number of resources dealing with mental health, he said.

Members can access counselling over the phone and seek directions from fellow officers.

A relief unit can be used to allow an officer posted in the community to come to Whitehorse for counselling, he noted.

It’s also about making sure those involved are having those sometimes awkward and difficult conversations, Jones said.

“As senior leader, I’m challenging manager to not turn a blind eye,” he said.

“We’re not just waiting for people to reach out,” he said.

“We’re really encouraging and telling our managers to reach in and find out what’s the temperature,” he said, metaphorically speaking.

Several years ago, when the relationships between Carcross residents and the RCMP were difficult, a community meeting was organized, Cresswell said, which helped.

“We’ve kind of taken a big step backwards there, we need to work together, with the RCMP,” he said.

“The chief makes a good point,” Jones said about the need to communicate more with CTFN.

“We’re certainly going to do that.”

“One of the things we have identified is making sure we are connected at district level and with the local communities.”

But the difficulties RCMP members encounter in Carcross aren’t reflective of the communities, Jones emphasized.

For Cresswell, it overshadowed positive developments that have happened in Carcross over the past years.

“We’re building a potlatch house, We got world-reknowned bicycle trails,” he said.

People have noticed a difference in the community, and they’ve told him.

And every year when the RCMP organizes their annual barbecue, a lot of people come.

“People who live there and know the community, they like it there,” Cresswell said.