The code: Inside 8 years' worth of code of conduct cases involving New Brunswick RCMP
CBC
Police and Public Trust, a project of the CBC News Atlantic investigative unit, scrutinizes the largely off-limits police complaint and discipline systems across the region. Journalists are using access to information laws and, in some cases, court challenges to obtain discipline records and data.
Six years ago, a New Brunswick RCMP inspector faced two allegations under the force's code of conduct, which guides employees' behaviour on and off duty.
The officer, whose name is redacted from data CBC News received, was accused of sexual misconduct (non-criminal) and discourtesy, an umbrella category capturing behaviour that is "profane, racial, rude or abusive."
The allegation of discourtesy was substantiated, or established, while the sexual misconduct allegation was not. The officer faced "remedial measures," though the data doesn't specify what those were.
Just a couple of months later, the same officer was again accused of misconduct under the code. This time, they were accused of abuse of authority and giving a false, misleading or inaccurate statement. Neither allegation was established.
None of that complaint history would be easily available to the public unless the officer faced a conduct hearing, reserved for the most serious cases where an employee's job is at stake. For the CBC to obtain the records, it took more than a year for the access to information request to be processed and the records, which don't include details on the narrative of each case, revealed.
CBC obtained the database of 130 code of conduct cases, spanning 2014 to 2022, as part of the ongoing Police and Public Trust project, which takes the public inside the often-opaque systems of police complaints and discipline across Atlantic Canada.
The data includes 263 unique allegations against about 130 unique employees, as some employees faced more than one allegation. The data doesn't include names, but each officer was assigned a unique subject member identifier.
The code of conduct is in place to hold employees to a high standard, according to New Brunswick RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Hans Ouellette.
"When those standards aren't met, we understand that can affect our community members and the people who call us and who look to us to help with whatever situation that they have," he said in an interview.
"So it can be concerning. What I can say to that is that we want to continue upholding those values, that we know that the community deserves, that New Brunswick deserves, and we want to continue fostering that."
In addition to the inspector, two other officers were also the subject of multiple code of conduct cases.
A constable received remedial measures for committing an unnamed provincial offence. Two other code of conduct charges, including unauthorized disclosure of information, were not found to be substantiated.
A couple of months later, the same officer was again under scrutiny under the code of conduct, this time for providing a false, misleading or inaccurate statement and misuse of RCMP IT equipment. Neither charge was found to be substantiated
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