Officer pleads guilty to trying to look up 95-year-old father's information

UPDATE: In February 2023, Sgt. Alex Bender was ordered to forfeit three days of pay.

An Ottawa police officer who tried to breach the national police database to get information about his ailing 95-year-old father — in what was an attempt to see if the system was working — has pleaded guilty to misconduct.

Sgt. Alex Bender pleaded guilty Thursday to a single count of insubordination under the Police Services Act for "disobeying and neglecting to carry out a lawful order without lawful excuse," namely conducting police database queries for "personal reasons."

In May 2022, Bender was contacted by a subordinate who asked whether the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) — the national police database that is accessible to all police services and contains private information on most Canadians, was functional.

The subordinate had been encountering challenges using the system.

"Sgt. Bender advised he was unaware of any CPIC issues but would attempt to submit a CPIC entry," according to an agreed statement of facts in the case that was read aloud Thursday morning by police prosecutor Angela Stewart.

"Bender submitted his 95-year-old father's name to determine the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) of his father's motor vehicle."

At the time, Bender had power of attorney over his elderly father, who had lost his vision and was no longer driving. The officer was also trying to transfer the ownership of his father's vehicle into his son's name, the hearing heard — something that he needed the VIN to do.

Bender made repeated attempts to search his father's name, but was getting "invalid results" in the system.

It was then that Bender called an operator of the national database for help.

Operator warned about losing database licence

The operator didn't know of any issues affecting service but was offering to help Bender with his query, Stewart said.

Bender gave her his father's name and date of birth, identifying characteristics that would allow for a search of the system.

The operator "questioned the surname" of the search, which was the same as Bender's. Bender explained, but "the operator advised Sgt. Bender that proceeding with this entry would be considered a breach of CPIC policy and [Ottawa police] could lose their CPIC licence."

Bender acknowledged the warning and ended the phone call. He later admitted to misconduct investigators that the search was for personal reasons.

Bender has been a police officer for 28 years and has no previous history of discipline or misconduct.

The police service and the Ottawa Police Association, which is representing the officer, have jointly asked the hearing officer to dock Bender 24 hours of pay. 

No decision on penalty has yet been made.