P.A. Police resources taxed by absent officer’s payroll

In addition to that, Robin defied an order from Dale McFee, who was the city’s Chief of Police at the time, not to contact the man, and gave confidential witness information to a third person.

This information all came out in a Saskatchewan Provincial Police Commission appeal sought by Robin after he was dismissed from the service by McFee. The Commission is a body independent of the government that, among other things, sets standard for Saskatchewan’s municipal police services.

After the arguments were made in January of 2011, Robin was ordered to spend a year on probation starting April 2011 by the hearing officer Anne Wallace.

She acknowledged Robin had attitude issues, and her ruling stated perhaps “a lengthy suspension and other remedial measures may well be the wake-up call Robin needs.”

Prince Albert Police sought to appeal the hearing’s decision in April of 2011.

The appeal was granted, and was heard in June of 2013, the current police chief, Troy Cooper, said in a statement sent out based on questions paNOW submitted to him.

He attributed the long appeal process to delays while Saskatchewan Police Commission members were being appointed.

Since then, three of the commission’s six members have been mulling over their final decision.

“A decision would be released when it’s been prepared and it’s ready… after all the evidence and arguments and legal issues have been considered,” said Saskatchewan Police Commission executive director Richard Peach.

“There is no limit in which a decision must be made.”

He added appeals of this type are rare, with the Robin case the only police matter seen by the commission in Peach’s two years with them.

In the meantime, Prince Albert Police Service will operate on $151,000 less than its budget had asked for during the City’s budget deliberations for 2015.

Over half that will go to Robin – an officer who isn’t on duty.

“The impact to the Service is the reduction of available resources committed to the overall function of the Service. In a small Service like ours, the impact of reduced resources is significant,” Cooper wrote in his statement.

“A process that takes this long for resolution has an impact on our operations and we are hopeful that it will be concluded soon. We have communicated our concerns over delay with the Ministry and the Commission and we are confident that they are taking steps to ensure discipline matters can be resolved more expediently in future.”

As of December 31, another officer is on administrative leave as she faces an assault charge for the use of oleoresin capsicum, or standard police-issued pepper spray, on a man who had been arrested in the summer of 2014.

While the police budget isn’t made public, Cooper said in November that 88 per cent of that goes to salaries, wages, and benefits. The police department had an increased budget, but most of that was for standard wage increases, leaving little wiggle room, according to Cooper.

“We just have a little less money to spend throughout the year. What we’re going to do is look at it slowly throughout the year… if an officer retires and we weren’t aware it takes some time to back fill them, so there’s some savings in those areas. That’s the first place we’ll look for savings,” he told paNOW at the end of 2014.

-With past paNOW files, and files from Thia James

claskowski@panow.com

On Twitter: @chelsealaskowsk

by Chelsea Laskowski

P.A. Police resources taxed by absent officer’s payroll

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