Police officer fired after sending naked photos to female crime victims

An officer with the West Vancouver Police Department (WVPD) has been fired after sending sexually explicit photos of himself to women he met while on duty — including women who were victims of crime.

In two cases, the officer sent a naked photo to a vulnerable victim of domestic abuse and tried to pursue a relationship with a woman being harassed by her estranged husband.

The behaviour was detailed as part of of a quarterly report from the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner (OPCC), released earlier this month.

After reading the report, WVPD department spokesperson Const. Jeff Palmer said the misconduct was "a huge disappointment" for the entire force.

"This officer's behaviour, clearly, is really the complete antithesis of what the community and the public should ever expect from a police officer," Palmer said Monday.

"The vulnerability of the females who were subject of this police officer's attention is a particularly aggravating feature of this."

Dozens of incidents

The OPCC launched an investigation into the officer's behaviour after a complaint was filed in 2017.

The resulting report outlines no fewer than 25 instances of the officer trying to get romantically involved with women he met on the job, beginning in 2011.

The misconduct ranged from using work cellphones and computers to sending sexually explicit messages to the women, to helping them clear traffic tickets from their records. The report said he also used police databases to look up information on a woman he was interested in.

Four of the women had been involved domestic violence, two of them being high-risk cases. Three others were linked to gang activity and drug trafficking.

Palmer said the officer, who wasn't named in the OPCC report, was immediately suspended without pay once the investigation began. He resigned after disciplinary hearings in the spring and was formally fired in August.

The OPCC said anything short of dismissal would've been "unworkable."

"The vulnerability of the females who were the subject of the police officer's attentions, particularly when considering our current understanding of sexism, power and culture, was significantly aggravating," the report read.

"Anything short of dismissal would be unworkable, would bring the administration of police discipline into disrepute, would significantly harm the reputation of the police department and policing in general."

Palmer said members of the public should always report any officer's behaviour they believe to be inappropriate — either directly to the officer's department or the OPCC.

"People should always understand: we are held accountable and we should be held accountable," he said.