Friday, March 29, 2024

Former Victoria police chief Frank Elsner has been dismissed from policing

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After a long and complicated disciplinary process, the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC) Stan T. Lowe has decided to uphold all actions taken against the former Victoria police chief, Frank Elsner.

Elsner was sworn in as police chief on December 15, 2013, and voluntarily stepped aside during investigations in December 2015, before resigning altogether in May 2017.

An allegation of misconduct emerged in the summer of 2015, when Elsner was accused of sending personal and sexual messages to the spouse of one of his serving officers via Twitter.

In response to the allegations, an internal investigation was conducted by Mayors Lisa Helps and Barbara Desjardins, and concluded with a “discipline letter” being attached to the former chief’s personnel file.

After the internal investigation was completed, OPCC Stan Lowe ordered two more external investigations, and replaced the two mayors who were the acting “disciplinary authorities” with two independent retired judges.

The first investigation was set to review the Twitter messages and information that suggested the former chief misled people over the course of the internal investigation, and the second investigation focused on the allegations of sexual harassment of female police officers within VicPD.

Over the course of the first investigation, in April 2016, more allegations of misconduct emerged and were included among the original allegations, bringing the total number of misconduct allegations to five.

Elsner then filed proceedings in the B.C. Supreme Court to stop the process, and while he was partially successful, (removing two of the five allegations from the investigation), the Federal Court of Appeal later overturned the ruling, re-starting the process on any frozen allegations.

The Consequences

Today, Lowe confirmed that Elsner was found to have committed 8 counts of varying misconduct. He said the findings and discipline measures “are unprecedented in Canadian policing.”

The counts include:

  • Misleading a subordinate in connection with the disciplinary investigation
  • Providing misleading information to the internal investigator
  • Attempting to have a witness provide a false statement to the investigator
  • Engaging in conduct with the spouse of a member under his command
  • Inappropriate use of police department equipment and facilities
  • Unwanted physical contact with two female officers
  • Inappropriate remarks of a sexual nature to one female officer

 

While Elsner resigned in May 2017, the former police chief will still receive the penalties, which include dismissal from policing, demotion to the rank of constable, suspension for 30 days, and training on ethics and harassment.

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Adam Chan
Former Staff Writer at Victoria Buzz.

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