B.C.'s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner begins a public hearing Monday into the arrest and detention of a teenage girl by Victoria police five years ago.

At issue is whether two police officers abused their authority in the case of Willow Kinloch, 15.

According to police, Kinloch was extremely intoxicated when she was arrested in May 2005. She was placed in a cell, where police say she screamed and banged on the walls for an hour.

The arresting officers tried to take her back to her apartment, but Kinloch was unable to talk to her parents because of a broken intercom.

After police returned her to the station, the combative teen was handcuffed, her ankles tethered to the cell door and left in a fetal position on the floor for four hours.

Willow Kinloch was 15 when her hands were cuffed behind her back and her legs tied together before she was tethered to the door of a padded cell for four hours on May 7, 2005. (CBC)An independent police investigation looked at the case, but Victoria's police Chief Jamie Graham found the allegations against his officers were not substantiated.

Graham's decision led to the hearing, said Bruce Brown, deputy police complaint commissioner.

"Chief Graham writes us and says 'this is not substantiated,'" Brown said. "We write him back and say, 'We'd like you to reconsider it.' He wrote back and said he has reviewed it and would not be reconsidering his decision, so we issued the order for the public hearing."

Kinloch won $60,000 in a civil case against the Victoria Police Department. The department appealed that judgment, but then settled with Kinloch for an undisclosed amount.

The commissioner's hearing, scheduled to last two weeks, will investigate aspects of police performance and practice, including possible abuse of authority, neglect of duty and the use of unnecessary force.

With files from Lisa Cordasco