After nearly eight months, an investigation into allegations of sexual assault against a teenage girl and obstruction of justice by a member of the Bridgewater Police is still not complete.
READ: Bridgewater police chief placed on leave following sex assault allegations
On Aug. 4, the Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT) received information from another police agency regarding the alleged actions of a Bridgewater, N.S. police officer. Eleven days later, SiRT – which is responsible for investigating all serious incidents involving police in Nova Scotia – announced publicly they were looking into the allegations.
Although SiRT will not confirm or deny the name of any individual they are investigating – after the allegations became public, multiple sources including the town’s mayor and the police force themselves, confirmed to Global News that the individual being investigated is John Collyer, chief of the Bridgewater Police Force.
Despite the time frame, SiRT says the investigation into Collyer is still not complete.
“In all of SIRT’s investigations we try to be as thorough and complete as possible,” said Ron MacDonald, director of SiRT.
“In this case, there was a particular type of evidence that we are awaiting that unfortunately takes some time to gather and that process does take some months.”
Collyer has been the chief of police in Bridgewater since 2011. The Bridgewater Police Commission confirms that Collyer is not currently in active service. He was placed on paid administrative leave Aug. 18, one week after the SiRT investigation was made public.
“The Bridgewater Board of Police Commissioners is concerned whenever an allegation is brought against one of our members as we take pride in the professionalism of our service,” said Pat Cappello, chair of the commission.
“We are looking forward to this current investigation wrapping up so that the service can return to normal.”
SiRT is not saying much about their ongoing investigation – but MacDonald does confirm that the allegations surrounding Collyer have no connection to another high profile case in the same community.
No connection to Bridgewater intimate images case
In May 2015, Bridgewater Junior/Senior High made headlines across the country after the school’s principal contacted authorities to report students were sharing intimate images on their cell phones.
READ MORE: Bridgewater, N.S. teens plead guilty in intimate images case
After a 13 month investigation, police laid charges in July 2016 against six teenage boys. Those charges came less than a month before the accusations against Collyer were made.
“It has no relationship to that whatsoever,” MacDonald confirmed to Global News.
MacDonald also said the investigation into Collyer is not being dragged out because he is the chief of police.
“Absolutely not. The individual involved has no relationship to the time or length needed to do the investigation,” he said.
“We base the length of our investigation on one simple thing: let’s get all of the evidence so we have the full picture before we make a final decision.”
It’s still unclear when the SiRT investigation will finally wrap up.
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