Recently, after yet another news story about police officers who continue to draw their salary while suspended from duty, a friend of mine asked me to explain why police officers were not treated the same as other working people. She was puzzled that uniformed police officers cannot be suspended without pay even when charged with the most heinous offences. It is a question that many people ask; there are days when I wonder about it myself.
I quite understand the legal reason. Under the Police Services Act, a police officer cannot be suspended without pay unless s/he is convicted of an offence and sentenced to a term of imprisonment.
I also understand the philosophical reason that the Act is so restrictive. Police officers are called upon to perform duties and face situations that may result in criminal charges. Lack of legal protection against such risks can have a chilling effect and seriously affect the ability of police officers to do their jobs.
However, there is no justification for a provision which is so sweeping in scope that an officer cannot be suspended without pay even when charged with the most egregious acts, as seen in the recent past. The protection applies even when the officer's action occurred off the job.
Because of its breadth, the protection against suspension without pay constitutes a form of differential and deferential treatment of one group of working people over every other group. Quite frankly, in its present form, the provision is an anachronism, a violation of every principle of sound labour relations practice.
Continuing to pay an officer who is alleged to have committed an egregious offence jeopardizes public confidence in policing and frustrates the responsible expenditure of public funds. While the Board and the Chief are guided by the principles of fundamental justice that individuals must be considered innocent until proven guilty, both are equally alive to the delicate balance that must be maintained between the public interest and an individual officer’s right to his/her day in court.
We have to recognize that these are rare situations. The vast majority of police officers perform their duties in a professional and exemplary manner, often in difficult circumstances. But when the public hears that an officer has been suspended with pay in spite of being charged with a most heinous offence, confidence in all police officers is undermined. That confidence is further undermined when the paid suspension continues for months and sometimes years, due to adjudication and appeal processes.
It is about time that the Police Services Act is amended to allow for suspension without pay in certain circumstances.
The fact is that since 1997, the Board and the Service have made numerous recommendations for such amendments to the Police Services Act. As recently as last year, the Board wrote to the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services yet again recommending that subsection 67(1) of the Act be amended to allow police officers to be suspended without pay in certain limited circumstances. The issue has been raised with all political parties in the last two years, during hearings by the Ontario Legislature's Standing Committee on Justice Policy related to amendments to the Act.
This Board and this Service are not alone in seeking this change. The Ontario Association of Police Service Boards and the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police also want necessary amendments to the Act. The only group that vehemently supports the continuation of this anachronism is the Police Association.
The status quo is untenable. Chiefs of police are deprived of an important tool for maintaining discipline and accountability. Public confidence is eroded. The province must act on this issue. In certain limited circumstances, chiefs of police must have the authority to suspend police officers without pay - as they do in almost all other provinces.
