Officer demoted for bogus traffic warnings
Padded his own statistics for personal gain
OTTAWA • Toxic competition among stat-obsessed officers in the Ottawa police traffic unit is both what triggered an investigation into fake traffic warnings and what is being blamed for the misconduct of the man the force believes was the worst offender.
Const. Edward Ellis, an Ottawa police officer since 2005 who spent four years in the traffic unit, was demoted Wednesday for 18 months for falsifying warnings to bolster his internal statistics.
Ellis pleaded guilty in July to two counts of discreditable conduct and one of insubordination for falsifying 33 warnings, failing to give drivers copies of eight valid warnings he issued, and for not taking proper notes for five warnings during a five- month period in 2015. He had been suspended with pay since Sept. 30, 2015, but has since returned to active duty and is on patrol.
Two whistle-blowing traffic officers, neither of whom were implicated in t he probe, had been at the top of the unit’s stats when Ellis climbed the charts. They became suspicious of how he was able to pull ahead of them. One of those officers found the undelivered warnings in Ellis’s cruiser and took them to the chain of command, sparking the audit of all traffic warnings issued by officers.
What resulted was nearly a yearlong probe by internal investigators into “ghost warnings” or “phantom tickets” — faked no- fee tickets that are used mostly as a method of driver deterrence.
The probe, which continues, has so far resulted in four officers being charged. Three, including Ellis, have pleaded guilty. Const. Bernard Covic received a sevenmonth demotion and Const. Brad Tierney was demoted for a year. A fourth officer, Const. Frederick Thornborrow, has been charged but has not yet entered a plea.
All were charged with two counts of discreditable conduct, one count of insubordination and one count of deceit under the Police Services Act. The charge of deceit was dropped against all officers who pleaded guilty.
Nine officers have also been sent to desk duty.
Ellis said “peer pressure” within the unit and “badgering” by the two whistleblowing officers in particular were his primary reasons for faking the documents, according to the facts of the case.
He conceded he fabricated the warnings to boost his stats.
Hearing officer Supt. Dan Delaney said Ellis’s “deliberate behaviour and actions” mean the responsibility is his to own.
“There is no excuse for this behaviour,” the superintendent said.
Delaney also noted that, f or many people, being pulled over by police while driving is the only interaction they have with the f orce. Ellis, through his misconduct, has tarnished the service’s reputation and eroded public trust, he said.
Ellis must now turn over his disciplinary records in any court proceeding, and any testimony he gives as a sworn police officer will be undermined by his own admission to falsifying traffic infractions for his personal benefit.
That might compromise any investigation in which the constable is involved, Delaney said.
In his uniform and having just returned from a collision scene on Wednesday, Ellis, once sentenced, told the hearing that he appreciates everyone in the department and has “a lot more to do in this police force.”
“I will do better in the future,” he promised.