Province plans to review Police Act, including disciplinary hearings
The Department of Public Safety plans to review the Police Act "in the very near future," including disciplinary proceedings, a spokesperson told CBC News on Tuesday.
It comes on the heels of news that a senior officer with the Kennebecasis Regional Police Force, who has been suspended with pay for more than four years pending the outcome of a conduct complaint, now plans to retire.
Insp. Jeff Porter was scheduled to face an arbitration hearing before the New Brunswick Police Commission in Fredericton on Oct. 26 over alleged sexual harassment and other Police Act offences involving a female civilian employee he supervised.
But his arbitration hearing was adjourned until Dec. 31, the same day his retirement takes effect.
Once an officer retires or resigns, they are no longer considered a police officer and the provincial policing oversight body has no authority to discipline them.
Porter is at least the third officer in recent years to retire before facing possible disciplinary action.
Former Saint John deputy chief Glen McCloskey retired in April 2018, six months before he was scheduled to face an arbitration hearing related to Dennis Oland's first murder trial in 2015 in the bludgeoning death of his father, multimillionaire Richard Oland. Another officer alleged McCloskey had urged him not to reveal he had walked through the bloody crime scene. (Oland was found not guilty in 2019 after being retried by judge alone.)
And former Kennebecasis Regional Police Force chief Stephen McIntyre retired in 2016 after an independent investigator found he committed 23 breaches of various sections of the code of conduct by, among other things, failing "to ensure that the improper or unlawful conduct of Insp. Porter was not concealed."
None of the allegations have been proven.
Review of act an 'interesting question'
Asked whether the Department of Public Safety is considering amending the Police Act to ensure officers can't avoid possible disciplinary action by resigning or retiring, spokesperson Coreen Enos did not answer the question directly.
"The department intends to resume engagement with stakeholders in the very near future on modernizing the Police Act, which will include review of issues such as disciplinary proceedings," she said in an emailed statement, without elaborating.
Jennifer Smith, executive director and CEO of the commission, described the idea as an "interesting question."
"However, the NBPC is not prepared to comment at this time on potential changes to the Police Act," she said.
The commission has offered the department "whatever assistance they need with respect to opening up the Police Act for review," she added.
Suspension with pay 'vital'
Bob Davidson, executive director of the New Brunswick Police Association, said a stakeholders' committee came up with several "major changes" two years ago, such as taking certain powers away from the commission and giving them back to the minister and having mutually agreed upon arbitrators, but they've been "sitting on a shelf."
One change the association that represents the nine municipal force unions doesn't want to see is for officers to lose their pay while suspended, said Davidson.
"Suspension with pay is vital to the front-line police officers," who may false allegations by criminals, which can take years to "expose and defeat," he said.
"Without it, there would be a major chilling effect," said Davidson. "Your livelihood would be gone. You could not afford to defend yourself under the criminal proceedings and the Police Act proceedings. So your whole life, your whole career will be gone."
Davidson pointed to the case of Saint John Police Force Const. Chris Messer, who faced more than three years of criminal and Police Act matters before being cleared.
Porter is a manager and not a member of the union.
Davidson described his case as a "one-off." Particular circumstances delayed proceedings and saw Porter collect his estimated annual salary of between $104,000 and $115,000 for four years, he said.
