A Vancouver police officer was downgraded from grade following a public hearing in allegations of sexualized misconduct.
Keiron McConnell saw his sergeant rank reduced to the first class agent.
The disciplinary hearing also slapped it from a “substantial” period of unpaid suspension, supervision at work and compulsory councils and training, according to the office of the police commissioner.
In addition to being a police officer, McConnell has taught in several post -secondary institutions, including Royal Roads and Kwantlen Polytechnic.
During the hearing, McConnell admitted to having discreditable driving allegations linked to unsolicited sexualized messages sent to colleagues officers and students and trying to initiate unwanted physical contact with a former student.
The referee hearing Carol Baird Ellan concluded that even if McConnell had “accepted responsibility” of sexual harassment involving five women, her admissions revealed an inappropriate model of behavior.
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Baird Ellan described the inspired discipline, which was the result of a joint proposal, as “not rejecting”, adding that they would have a deterrent effect on other officers.
However, the defenders of women in the police were not impressed.
Tammy Hammell, a Vancouver retirement police officer with three decades on force, said the discipline had not been far enough.
“It will be suspended for a period of 20 days which will be at the discretion of the VPD,” she said.
“He has the possibility of being reinstated after 12 months, if the department decides that it is acceptable for him to return from a demotion of the first class agent to the sergeant, and also in a position of power and control over the people of his own department, civilians and police officers who are subordinate to him will be potentially at risk again.”
Helen Irvine, the principal applicant in a collective appeal launched by police against several municipal police forces in British Columbia, agreed.
“All this may seem very well on paper, but it’s the same thing that has been going on from the start, we see it now in a public forum,” she said.
“He will come back to work with the same people who allowed it to happen first, the place where he felt comfortable to display this kind of behavior for years without fear that nothing happens to him, without fear of losing his job.”
In addition to the discipline, Baird Ellan has also published a certain number of recommendations for the Vancouver police department and the Vancouver police council aimed at fighting sexual harassment and protecting the victims that are manifested.
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