A Victoria Police Department officer was suspended but gets to keep their job after an incident at a roadside police roadblock while they were off duty.
That’s according to the annual report from the B.C. Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner that summarized “substantiated” allegations.
The report doesn’t name the officer, but said that the off-duty member provided information to an RCMP member at an impaired driving roadblock that “their last alcoholic beverage was a ‘glass of wine’ that was consumed ‘yesterday.’ The member subsequently provided a breath sample that resulted in a ‘warn’ reading on an Approved Screening Device (ASD), resulting in a three-day Immediate Roadside Prohibition being issued,” said the report.
The commissioner decided that it was in the public interest that an external police agency conduct this investigation and designated an external discipline authority.
The report said the VicPD officer lied to the RCMP at the roadblock.
“The Member was dishonest upon questioning when advising the RCMP member that their last alcoholic beverage was consumed ‘yesterday’ and consisted of ‘a glass of wine.’”
The report said that the discipline authority investigating “found that the member appeared to have committed misconduct. A prehearing conference was offered and accepted by the member. In arriving at the decision on disciplinary or corrective measures, the Prehearing Conference Authority noted that the member self-reported the incident to their employer, and that the member had accepted responsibility for their actions, demonstrated remorse, and made no attempt to minimize their actions. The Prehearing Conference Authority also considered that the member had sought out counselling independently to address their actions.”
In the end, the officer ended up being suspect for a total of four days without pay from the two allegations.
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