Ex-chief of Victoria police gets dismissed
Penalty described as ‘unprecedented’
VICTORIA Former Victoria police chief Frank Elsner will never wear a police uniform again.
For the first time in B.C., the discipline imposed on a police chief under the Police Act would have resulted in his dismissal.
“These findings and discipline measures are unprecedented in Canadian policing,” police complaint commissioner Stan Lowe said in a news release Wednesday.
Elsner, who was sworn in as police chief on Dec. 15, 2013, resigned in May 2017, but the discipline process continued.
Lowe’s report, a Review of the Investigations and Disciplinary Process Concerning Frank Elsner, said the former chief committed eight acts of misconduct under the Police Act. His service record will show that he has been dismissed from policing. The penalties for some of the misconduct also included demotion to the rank of constable, suspension for 30 days, and training on ethics, harassment and sensitivity.
Lowe is also calling for changes to the Police Act. After reviewing the way Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins and Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps, the co-chairs of the Victoria Police Board, dealt with the Elsner matter, Lowe said he has made a recommendation to government that a retired judge, not a mayor, be appointed to serve as discipline authority for misconduct matters involving allegations about a chief or deputy chief of a municipal police department.
In August 2015, Helps and Desjardins received information that Elsner had exchanged personal and sexually charged messages on Twitter with the wife of one of his officers.
The allegations were initially addressed through an internal investigation process, with the mayors placing a discipline letter on Elsner’s file.
On Dec. 18, 2015, Lowe found the internal investigation failed the test of fairness, accountability and transparency under the Police Act. He removed Helps and Desjardins as discipline authorities and ordered two external investigations.
The first dealt with the Twitter messages and information suggesting Elsner misled people in the course of the internal investigation.
The second dealt with allegations of sexual harassment of female police officers at the Victoria Police Department.
The Vancouver police and the RCMP conducted a detailed investigation of both matters. During the Twitter investigation, five additional allegations of misconduct surfaced.
Retired judge Carol Baird Ellan found Elsner engaged in conduct with the wife of a serving member that constituted breach of trust and conflict of interest, misled a subordinate in connection with a disciplinary investigation, provided misleading information to an internal investigator, attempted to have a witness provide a false statement to the investigators, and inappropriately used police department equipment and facilities.
Retired judge Ian Pitfield found Elsner had unwanted physical contact with two female police officers and made inappropriate remarks of a physical nature toward one of them.