Victoria Police Board seeking court order to obtain documents from police complaints commission

The Victoria Police Board wants the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC) to release documents from an external investigation into suspended Victoria Police Chief Frank Elsner. 

The board has instructed its lawyer to seek a court order to compel the OPCC to release a copy of the final investigation report and the disciplinary authority's decision to proceed to disciplinary hearing. 

Frank Elsner has been suspended with pay since last April.

Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps is the lead co-chair of the police board. She says the board needs the documents to help it make a decision about Elsner's employment.

"We can't make those decisions with no information, so we're in a very difficult situation, and I think hopefully the police complaints commission understands that."   

But deputy police complaint commissioner Rollie Woods says the co-chairs of the board, Helps and Esquimalt Mayor and B.C. Liberal candidate Barb Desjardins, were interviewed by the police as part of the investigation.

He says they could be called as witnesses in the disciplinary hearings. 

"Typically, you wouldn't want witnesses to be exposed to the evidence of others. it's a dilemma certainly for the commissioner in deciding how to proceed," he said. 

Woods adds that under the Police Act, his office isn't obligated to provide the police board with the documents it wants.