The top RCMP officer at the detachment in Kelowna, BC, says a video circulating on social media that appears to show one of his officers punching a combative driver doesn't tell the full story.

The video was filmed by a passerby and shows two officers wrestling with a man in a local parking lot on Saturday, and when a third officer arrives, he hits the man in the face.

Superintendent Brent Mundle says he recognizes that the tactics in the video are shocking to many people and it's always the intention to make a peaceful arrests.

But he says when circumstances require it, officers may have to use physical force.

Mundle says the driver allegedly struggled, pulled away and refused to follow commands, and that's when the third officer was called to help.

He says the third officer saw the man resisting arrest and in order to gain control of the situation he struck several the man several times.

Police say officers were responding to a complaint of an intoxicated man in a vehicle.

They say a 30 year old man was taken to the RCMP detachment and then to hospital to be treated for non life threatening injuries.