For three years, the Nelson Police Department has been at the centre of an investigation into alleged racist posts in a private WhatsApp chat.
Now, the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner has ordered three current and three retired officers from the department to take part in a public hearing.
We first reported the allegations in 2022, when eight officers were initially under investigation, which was conducted by the Vancouver Police Department.
It resulted in two officers being cleared of wrongdoing. Six were found to have committed discreditable conduct.
In ordering the hearing, complaint commissioner Prahbu Rajan said, “There needs to be clarity for the officers involved in this case, and for policing more generally, about whether group chats between police officers are protected and when they bring discredit to their police department or undermine a respectful workplace culture.”
Professor Arthur Schafer, founding director for the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba commented about the case, saying, “It’s important because when police officers have a racist or sexist attitudes, when they’re prejudiced, when they’re bigoted, those attitudes are likely to leak into their conduct as police officers and to prejudice their ability to act professionally.”
The case faced delays due to a constitutional challenge, with some officers arguing their rights were contravened when their chat logs were obtained.
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Schafer said that when the adjudication of the case is finished, it will be an occasion for reflection, “to think about how we recruit new members of the police force, how we train them, what attitudes and values we inculcate as they’re learning how to become police officers.”
Dates for the public hearing are still to be determined. It will be overseen by retired judge Brent Hoy.
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