Extracurricular Criminal Acts

Policing Police

"Right now we're just forced to pay them, and it's not right.
"It's their taxpayers' money that is going toward this, and they don't see it as fair, and I agree with them. It's an added pressure to our budgets.
"The money's one thing, but it's the whole principle of having a member charged with a serious criminal offence that has nothing to do with their job and we still are forced to pay them.
"I believe in the presumption of innocence."
Ottawa Police Chief Charles Bordeleau

This is an issue whose time has long come and most certainly needs addressing. It is also an issue that Chief Bordeleau shares with the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police. That members of the provincial police forces who are charged with criminal offences on their own, off-duty time, no longer automatically receive paycheques, for as long as they are suspended. There are times when police activities are placed under a magnifying glass when actions appearing egregious in their nature are investigated by an SIU unit.

This is a civilian agency tasked with investigating events and circumstances involving police and the public that may have resulted in death, serious injury or claims of sexual assault, for example. Full-time SIU investigators are selected from the ranks of former law enforcement personnel, or people who have in the past worked for law enforcement agencies. These investigations, however, focus on allegations of police violence or issues of mishandling of situations, while on the job.

It is the issue of off-duty, private time activities, when purportedly criminal events take place and it is revealed that a police officer is involved, that Chief Bordeleau is speaking of. Serious criminal charges lodged against a member of the police force have a reputation-damaging effect on the entire structure and public trust of the police force. Added to that is the police budget and strains upon that finite source of funding for policing operations.

If, during the course of an criminal investigation and the eventual trial, a member of the police force is suspended for however long it takes to find either way -- and it may take several years -- validating the charges or clearing the officer's name, the force continues to pay the wage of an officer who is temporarily of no practical use to them, the budget is further strained, just as the force finds itself short-handed, as another fall-out.

What Chief Bordeleau would like to see brought into provincial law through a change to the Police Services Act, would be the leeway to permit forces to exercise the discretion to suspend without pay for criminal charges. It could work by allowing suspension sans pay when an officer is charged with a serious offence unrelated to his professional performance, and with the same applying when, charged with a serious offence, the officer is held in custody or in circumstances where job duties are constrained.

Paying out close to $100,000 anually for however many years it might take to clear or confirm a criminal charge is a heavy burden for any cash-strapped police force. Predictably enough, the Ottawa police union is not enamoured of the recommendation. "We're persecuted publicly before we're given any right to a trial, and it's because we're police officers that that's happening. That's the irony: it's our profession that's driving this move", noted Union President Matt Skof.

Hardly surprising, and perfectly reasonable, since if a professional law enforcement agent who is well compensated for performing in a difficult job chooses in his private, personal time to break the law he swears to uphold while in uniform, the public has every right to hold him/her to account. It is a matter of trust that an officer of the law is capable of discharging duties without bias or resorting to illegal means, to begin with.

 Officers charged with criminal offences often must check in at their detachments on a daily basis, while under suspension. Others may be assigned to administrative or equipment duties to ensure that some value is extracted in job performance of some type while they are being paid, rather than sitting at home and collecting a hefty paycheque.

As far as the Minister of Community Safety and Correction Services for the province is concerned: "The issue of suspension without pay will be considered by the Future of Policing Advisory Committee (FPAC), which the ministry launched last year. Any changes to the Police Services Act would require consultations with all affected partners in the policing community and approval by the Legislature." 

Fair enough. And when that's done, perhaps it might be another idea whose time has come to make it a trifle more straightforward to enable police services to discharge officers from duty completely -- fire them -- when their conduct and charges brought against them are sufficient to demonstrate they bring nothing of value to the police force and the public that pays them.