Review ordered for disciplined officer

The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner has ordered a review in the case of an Abbotsford police officer who received a penalty of 16 days without pay for assaulting and harassing the officer’s estranged spouse.

The commissioner’s office, which is withholding the identity of the officer in question in order to protect the victim and any children, says it’s a case of “intimate partner violence,” but declined Tuesday to give the gender of the officer.

On July 17, 2017, the commissioner, who investigates allegations of misconduct involving municipal police officers, received information from the Abbotsford police related to the officer in question.

It was alleged that on May 2, 2017, the officer entered the residence of the officer’s spouse as the spouse tried to close the door and grabbed the spouse’s wrist, preventing the spouse from calling police by taking phones away.

The officer was alleged to have pulled the spouse’s arm and controlled the spouse physically and to have locked the door leading to the garage, which prevented the spouse from leaving the house. The spouse was alleged to have suffered a significant bruise during the altercation.

The member persisted in the actions of placing a GPS tracker and unwanted communication despite being warned.

It was also alleged that on two occasions, in January and May 2017, the officer placed GPS tracking devices on the spouse’s vehicle. The officer was alleged to have followed the spouse and subjected the spouse to unwanted communication.

Despite a letter from a lawyer acting for the spouse warning the cop to stop communications, the officer was alleged to have continued the contacts. The complaint commissioner ordered an investigation under the Police Act, but the matter was suspended as a criminal probe had been launched as well.

The criminal investigation resulted in the officer pleading guilty to one count of assault in July 2018. For that offence, the officer received a conditional discharge and was placed on conditions of probation for a year.

After the criminal case was dealt with, the Police Act investigation resumed with a discipline authority identifying additional misconduct, including that the officer identified themself as an Abbotsford cop to staff in a local bar to access security video recording of the spouse, and made inquiries on the police database unrelated to work duties.

The officer agreed to be suspended without pay for 12 days, but the police complaint commissioner rejected the agreement and the case was referred to a discipline proceeding presided over by Abbotsford police Chief Const. Michael Serr, which resulted in the penalty of 16 days without pay.

In ordering a review of the penalty, the police complaint commissioner said that Serr had incorrectly applied the Police Act in arriving at the penalty, noting that the conduct exhibited by the member was sustained and deliberate over a lengthy period of time.

“Furthermore, the member persisted in the actions of placing a GPS tracker and unwanted communication despite being warned by a supervisor and a lawyer to stop respectively,” the police complaint commissioner said.

A review of the paperwork in the case instead of a public hearing was ordered. Retired judge David Pendleton has been appointed to preside as adjudicator of the review.