Whitehorse RCMP are calling for an independent body or police force to investigate another allegation of excessive use of force in the drunk tank.

"We take all these allegations seriously,” the RCMP's spokesman, Sgt. Don Rogers, said today of the complaint filed Tuesday by 48-year-old Wayne Hare of Whitehorse.

"An external police force will be brought in to conduct the investigation.”

Rogers explained the decision to call for an independent investigation was made this morning after officers met with the Yukon's Department of Justice to review Hare's written statement addressed to Chief Supt. Peter Clark of the RCMP "M” Division.

The circumstances surrounding the 2008 death of Raymond Silverfox while in custody at the Whitehorse police detachment horrified the Yukon public. It was also a major factor driving a territorial review of handling intoxicated prisoners in the Yukon.

Hare told the Star Tuesday afternoon he has also brought the matter to the attention of the Council of Yukon First Nations, and will be seeking assistance to mount a legal action to get a copy of the cell block videotape.

Hare maintains he was waiting for a taxi early last Saturday morning outside a local bar where he had consumed enough to get drunk.

He said he doesn't remember anything from the time RCMP officers arrested him and put him in the police car to when he woke up the next morning without clothes and a broken shoulder.

"At the very least, I want to see the video of what happened in that drunk tank and why I woke up naked,” he said.

Hare said the female jail guard assisted him after he awoke by getting him some clothes, and the RCMP watch commander, having become aware of situation, sent him by ambulance to Whitehorse General Hospital.

The seasonal truck driver said even if he was called back to work today, he couldn't go because of the broken shoulder he insists occurred while he was in police custody, though he doesn't recall when.

It was not broken before he got into the police cruiser, Hare said.

A member of the Tr'ondek Hwech'in Han Nation of Dawson City, the father of two and grandfather of three said he doesn't have a history with the police.

He said while he can't imagine what happened, he can't help believe whatever happened had something to do with his aboriginal ancestry.

The incident, he pointed out, occurred just three days after last week's big announcement regarding a new and improved approach to watching over prisoners in jail cells.

The territorial review of how prisoners are cared for was sparked by a couple of highly

publicized cases, not the least of which was the Silverfox case.

The 43-year-old Northern Tutchone man died in cells after RCMP officers taunted and teased him while ignoring his failing health over 13 hours.

It was announced last week that beginning in 2012 with the scheduled completion of the new Whitehorse Correctional Centre, all prisoners – including intoxicated ones – will be brought up to the Whitehorse Correctional Centre and held in cells there. The cells will be monitored by a registered nurse 24 hours a day.

There will be virtually no use of the jail cells at the RCMP detachment, it was suggested.

Rogers said this morning's decision to engage a private body or independent police force from Medicine Hat or Edmonton to conduct the investigation is in keeping with the "M” Division's commitment to transparency.

"I want to stress these are allegations, and everyday in this country people make allegations against the police and everyday police are out there conducting themselves, and 99.9 per cent of the time I think they do a pretty good job.”

See story on Silverfox case,