Corrupt officer quits, paid leave ends
A corrupt police officer who was ordered to resign or be fired back in June 2015 has abandoned his appeal and left the force.
Sgt. Rohan Beebakhee’s resignation from the Ottawa Police Service was effective Feb. 16.
It signals the end of a policing career that was marred by multiple oversight investigations and allegations against the officer that first began to publicly surface in a 2008 SIU investigation.
Beebakhee’s resignation also put an end to a with-pay suspension that saw him collect a paycheque without working since 2012.
Beebakhee had been found guilty under the Police Services Act of three counts of insubordination, two counts of corrupt practice and one count of deceit.
Last summer, hearing officer Terence Kelly, a retired York Region police deputy chief, said Beebakhee’s 37 queries in the Canadian Police Information Centre database (CPIC) and 400 searches in the Ottawa police records management system violated the privacy rights of 83 people.
“These flagrant breaches and lack of respect and trust bestowed upon Sgt. Beebakhee jeopardize his usefulness as a police officer,” Kelly said.
Kelly was told during a hearing that Beebakhee phoned Det. Shane Henderson, the lead investigator in Ottawa’s first successfully prosecuted human trafficking case, at his home to ask for information about the investigation. Beebakhee accessed the file when Henderson wouldn’t respond to his questions.
Beebakhee also accessed records several times involving his then-girlfriend, known during the hearing as K.S.
During their relationship, Beebakhee searched K.S. on the Ottawa police records management system several times.
When questioned about making the queries, Beebakhee said he wasn’t aware of the Ottawa police policies related to searches for personal use and that he didn’t know K.S. had returned to the sex trade.
Between May 2011 and May 2012, Beebakhee requested phone subscriber information 17 times on numbers involving escorts who had bad dates.
Those checks were never related to any police investigation, Kelly said.
Ottawa police Chief Charles Bordeleau said last year that when the case was first presented, he took the position that dismissal was the appropriate penalty.