City constable demoted for drinking and driving

Constable pleaded guilty to charges related to driving drunk off duty

An Ottawa police officer has been demoted for one year for drinking and driving while off duty.

Two witnesses called 911 after watching him drive over a median, into a residential garden and nearly into a ditch in May 2020.

Const. James Monroe pleaded guilty to both criminal and internal police disciplinary charges.

In October, he was criminally convicted of operating a conveyance with a blood-alcohol concentration over 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. Monroe had also been charged with impaired driving but that charge was dropped. In December, he pleaded guilty to one count of discreditable conduct under the Police Services Act.

Monroe has been an Ottawa police officer since 2009 and worked as an Ontario Provincial Police officer before that. After his arrest, he was reassigned to desk duties.

According to an agreed statement of facts presented at his guilty plea, Monroe was off duty and driving his own vehicle in the city's east end, near Old Montreal Road and Dairy Drive, when a witness reported him driving “erratically, swerving in and out of oncoming traffic, and going over the shoulder of the roadway.”

The witness saw him turn into a residential subdivision and hit the right-hand shoulder. He then made a U-turn, driving over the centre median and into a “garden area” of the subdivision.

Monroe “then backed up into the garden” before getting back on the road and driving westbound on Old Montreal Road. The witness then saw him narrowly avoid driving into a ditch. A second witness, according to the facts, then called 911 to report that the vehicle was stopped on the east side of the road.

Ottawa police then responded to the scene where “Monroe showed many signs of impairment.”

When police asked him to get out of his vehicle, Monroe had to be helped to stand up and propped himself up on his vehicle to steady his balance.

Monroe was sentenced to pay a $2,600-fine and to a one-year driving prohibition for the criminal charge. He now has a criminal record.

In addition to the demotion from first-class to second-class constable for one year, Monroe will also speak to the next three classes of police recruits “on the perils and repercussions of drinking and driving as a member of the police service.”

The demotion also comes with a decrease in pay. Monroe has no history of previous discipline.