Police officers in Victoria were disciplined for swearing at an officer during a traffic stop, filming a prisoner masturbating in a cell and lying about their military service records among other acts of misconduct, according to a report by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner.
The OPCC’s 2023-24 annual report shows six complaints about Island police officers led to some form of disciplinary measure from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024.
Four of those complaints involved the Victoria Police Department, and two were determined to be valid grounds for dismissal.
Three substantiated reasons for dismissal were found in the case of a special municipal officer working as a jail guard who showed another officer video of a person who appeared to be masturbating inside a VicPD cell in 2021 and then repeatedly lied about it in a subsequent investigation, the report said.
The video, allegedly taken while the officer was on duty, initially led to a two-day no-pay suspension of the officer.
However, the commission later determined an official investigation was needed.
The officer resigned from the department during the investigation, which was led by retired B.C. Provincial Court judge Brian Neal.
Neal found the officer displayed “a disturbing indifference to basic standards of trust, care and professionalism” and made two “deceitful statements” while being interviewed by a Police Act investigator.
Another VicPD officer who wore several military ribbons — including a Meritorious Service Medal — in 2021 was found to have falsified his military record. The report said the officer’s supervisor became suspicious about the medals after hearing the officer’s account of how they were earned.
While the officer’s conduct was being investigated by a senior police officer in the New Westminster Police Department, the officer provided a forged military record and false and misleading statements regarding the medals, the OPCC said.
The officer was determined to have three substantiated reasons for dismissal, but resigned from the department before the investigation was completed.
The OPCC report said both officers will have the dismissal written into their service records despite their resignations.
In other incidents, a Central Saanich police officer was suspended for four days without pay after allegedly “liaising” with a person under investigation for criminal offences in 2018, even though the officer was overseeing the suspect’s police file. That investigation was conducted by the Metro 91原创 Transit Police.
A Saanich police officer was given a written reprimand after it was found that the officer had contributed “to a toxic work environment” by yelling at and ridiculing other officers from 2021 to 2022.
The OPCC report also noted that the officer engaged in “bullying behaviour” toward more junior officers and would discuss performance issues with officers while they were in public situations.
An off-duty VicPD police officer was disciplined after the officer swore at and made inappropriate comments to another municipal police officer after being stopped for an unspecified traffic offence in 2023.
At the subsequent discipline proceedings, the officer admitted to “directing profanity and sarcasm” toward the other officer and “fully accepted responsibility” for their actions, the report said.
Another VicPD officer who breached a prisoner’s Charter rights by failing to provide them timely access to a lawyer in an April 2022 incident was given a written reprimand following a review of the case by retired B.C. Provincial Court judge James Threlfall.
Victoria police received the fourth-highest number of complaints in the province at 68, with five of those complaints substantiated. 91原创, at 306, saw the highest number of complaints, followed by Surrey at 83 and Abbotsford at 69.
Saanich police was the subject of 36 complaints and one investigation, while Central Saanich police had five complaints and one substantiated investigation.
Oak Bay’s police department received a single complaint.
