Calgary Police Chief Roger Chaffin said the actions of Sgt. Anthony Braile, fired seven years after a careless driving incident, were so egregious, there was no possibility of finding him police work while he was suspended from the frontlines for seven years. The process has caused some to question the suspension policy and the fact he collected just under $750,000 in salary while away from work.
“The allegations and what he had done were so egregious to the professional policing, so egregious to the members of the service and the community, that I could not see, or we could not see any reason to have him back in the workplace because of what he had done,” Chaffin said in a Wednesday press conference. “In this case, the actions of the person couldn’t be supported any further in policing.”
Braile was fired due to an incident in which he chased after a suspected impaired driver at speeds up to 145 kilometres an hour through residential areas and the downtown core. The incident happened in 2008 and involved nine counts of professional misconduct.
“At the scene of the collision, Sgt. Braile provided misleading and incomplete information to the District 1 Sergeant and the Duty Inspector who were working that evening,” police said in a Monday statement. “A criminal prosecution resulted, with Sgt. Braile ultimately pleading guilty to a charge of careless driving under the Traffic Safety Act (TSA).”
WATCH RAW: Chief Roger Chaffin on dismissal of officer
Braile was dismissed from the Calgary Police Service on Feb. 3 after a lengthy disciplinary proceeding—a process Chaffin agreed was “unfair.” Braile would have collected just under $750,000 while he was suspended from work for seven years, according to police association salary figures. Chaffin noted he didn’t receive pay for the last three to four months.
“I just simply don’t believe paying someone year after year after year to sit at home is in anybody’s best interest,” Chaffin said. “If they’re being paid, they should be at work. If they can’t be at work, they shouldn’t be getting paid kind.”
“It’s unfair. It’s unfair to everybody. It’s not the way anyone would run a business yet we are constrained by [the Police Act and labour standards].”
Chaffin said employees of a police service in Canada fall under the Police Act, which—along with a collective agreement—dictates exactly how employees must be managed. He said due process must be followed since such cases begin with allegations that must be proved, but called the timeframe “so incredibly long and slow” it bogs the system down.
Canadian Taxpayers Federation Alberta director Paige MacPherson said due process is important, but hundreds of thousands of dollars seems “blatantly excessive.”
“Reportedly over $700,000 has been wasted and taxpayers got zero value for that money,” MacPherson said. “There should be a cap on the length of time police officers can be paid for sitting around on leave in these cases. Clearly we need to incentivize both sides to speed up the process, not stretch it out while taxpayers dish out money for nothing.”
“It’s hard to imagine a private sector job in which you would get paid to sit and not work for six years while an investigation dragged on. Let’s remove this discrepancy between the public sector and the taxpayers who are footing the bill.”
Chaffin said the process has become “so litigious” for serious discipline issues that the average Calgarian would have trouble relating to how police address situations.
“That sort of interferes with the idea that employer can actually sit with employee and say, ‘that was unacceptable and we are going to deal with it today and now,’” Chaffin said. “So most areas of your work, you’d have an intimate conversation with your employer about what you’d done or alleged to have done. In this circumstance, you’d go through a hearing process, a quasi-judicial process, that takes a long, long time and involves a lot of people, and a lot of cost.”
Chaffin said Calgary police have raised the issue of Police Act reform with the new provincial government and looks forward to moving forward with modernizing the act. He said out of about 2,000 sworn officers, three are currently suspended without pay.
Braile will also receive his pension, as pensions are “contributed to and invested,” Chaffin said.
Watch below from Feb 8: A Calgary police officer has been fired after pleading guilty to a charge of careless driving under the Traffic Safety Act. The incident happened seven years ago and involved nine counts of professional misconduct. Global’s Tracy Nagai has more.
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