10% of complaints against P.E.I. police in years leading up to 2023 substantiated, records show

Police and Public Trust, a CBC News Atlantic Investigative Unit project, scrutinizes the largely off-limits police complaint and discipline systems across the region. Journalists are using access to information laws, and in some cases court challenges, to obtain discipline records and data.

A Charlottetown police officer was accused of using "humiliating language" toward a person who said they'd been administered a drug without their knowledge in a bar. The complaint also said the officer failed to investigate whether a crime actually happened.

An investigation found "clear and convincing evidence to support the allegation of misconduct," but the officer resigned, and Charlottetown's police chief no longer had any jurisdiction to discipline them.

In another case, a complainant alleged a Charlottetown officer neglected their duties and acted in a discreditable manner. 

The officer saw their rank reduced for six months, but it's not exactly clear what kind of behaviour and negligence led to them being disciplined.

Those are two of the gaps CBC News found when analyzing more than three years' worth of municipal police complaints held by the Office of the Police Commissioner of P.E.I.

The data includes more than 50 complaints made about police officers in Charlottetown, Summerside and Kensington between 2019 and the end of 2022. It shows that about 10 per cent of the complaints — six in total — were founded or substantiated. 

P.E.I. is unique in Atlantic Canada because its police commission posts summaries of all complaints online. That's information CBC has had to go to court for in other provinces.

But the summaries have varying levels of detail. Any identifying specifics about the officer are excluded, and in some cases the summaries don't identify the police service the officer belongs to — information the police commission could still withhold moving forward.

"I fully appreciate that there is a very strong public interest in policing and civilian oversight agencies, so we aim to be as transparent as possible while always protecting people's privacy rights," said P.E.I. police commissioner Cindy Wedge. 

"It's a balance. It's why we're going to change publishing the name of the police agency that employs the officer complained of, because we think we can do a better job of protecting people's privacy."

Compiling the data  

Police officers in Atlantic Canada are the subject of hundreds of complaints each year. 

The complaints come from members of the public and internal sources within the officer's own police department.

Allegations may relate to neglect of duty, excessive force or deceitful behaviour, to name a few examples. 

The CBC's Atlantic investigative unit has launched a project called Police and Public Trust, which will take Canadians inside the opaque systems of police complaints and discipline across the region.

In P.E.I., the complaints were gathered from the police commission's website and from conversations with commission staff, who determined some had been missing from the site following CBC inquiries.

"We noted some gaps that we've now gone back into our online records and rectified," Wedge said. 

"So it's something that we're always open to looking at, how can we improve this."

Most complaints unfounded

The majority of complaints — about 52 per cent — were unfounded or unsubstantiated. The rest were either dismissed, abandoned or ineligible, typically because the complainant could no longer be reached or because they were made against the RCMP, which has a separate system to handle complaints. 

Of the six that were founded, at least three were about officers with the Charlottetown police. The summary of the other three didn't specify which police agency they were against. 

In four of them, the resolution offered was an apology to the complainant. A founded complaint resulted in an officer getting their rank reduced and not being allowed in any supervising position for six months.

The final founded complaint resulted in disciplinary action being taken, but there aren't details about what that was.

When it comes to the nature of the complaints filed, the most frequent allegation is that an officer neglected their duty. That includes claims that an officer failed to investigate a situation or lay a charge. 

Also frequent are allegations of discreditable conduct, such as harassment, threats, being rude or aggressive, or using humiliating language toward the complainant. 

Other complaints relate to investigative decisions the complainant disagreed with, allegations of abuse of authority or excessive use of force, and claims of deceitful behaviour, like lying or providing false information. 

Police Act spells out how complaints are investigated

The province's first police commissioner was appointed in 2009, making the P.E.I. office the newest of its kind in the Maritimes. 

The complaint process is outlined in the province's Police Act, which sets out when they can be filed, how they're investigated, and who decides whether a complaint is founded. 

People can file complaints directly to the police commission or one of the three municipal police agencies. Complaints need to be made in writing and include the complainant's name, contact information and identify the officer or police agency the complaint is against.

Complainants also need to provide the date of the incident, a description of what happened and their signature.

People can file one through the police commissioner's website, which will prompt them for all the required information.

Under the act, investigations are initially done by the police service the complaint was filed against. Charlottetown police chief Brad MacConnell said that is unless the complaint involves serious or criminal allegations.

In such cases, MacConnell said, the attorney general can assign an independent investigator, like another police service or the Serious Incident Response Team in Nova Scotia. 

Chief decides if claim is unfounded

In Charlottetown, the investigations are done by a senior officer who then writes a report for the chief of police. It's the chief who decides whether a complaint is founded. 

But the report isn't given to the complainant unless they make a freedom of information request. The police commissioner will be given a copy of the full report if they get a request to review the investigation. 

I think anything we can do to improve that transparency, certainly we're open for discussion on that.- Brad MacConnell, Charlottetown police chief

"We live in a world of increased transparency, but we also work within the framework and the legislation that was set out for us. And the Police Act kind of lays out the steps," MacConnell said.

"Certainly as chief I'm very mindful of serious incidents that can undermine public confidence and the need for transparency, where other agencies have to come in and make sure that there's transparency and investigation.

"I think anything we can do to improve that transparency, certainly we're open for discussion on that."

If a complainant, or the officer the complaint is filed against, doesn't agree with the outcome of the investigation they can request the police commissioner conduct a review to see if anything was missed. 

Eight reviews were done between 2019 and the end of 2022, according to the police commissioner's website. In all reviews, the police chief's initial decision was upheld.  

No way to tell if officers face multiple complaints

While the police commissioner provides summaries and outcomes about complaints online, there are still many things that aren't made public. 

Since there's no information to identify an officer, there's no way to know if someone has been the subject of multiple complaints. 

In the data provided to CBC through access to information in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, police officers were assigned a unique code that allows records to show whether someone has multiple complaints against them. 

If there was any sign that there was kind of a consistent problem, we would know the avenues to follow to address that.- Cindy Wedge, P.E.I. police commissioner

On P.E.I., Wedge said she doesn't think this system is necessary because of the small size of the Island's police services. 

"We know who the people are that have been complained about," she said. "If there was any sign that there was kind of a consistent problem, we would know the avenues to follow to address that." 

The police commissioner's powers are also limited by what's laid out in the Police Act. For example, Wedge can't carry out larger, systemic investigations into police complaints to try to identify any trends or patterns. 

"We have very clear boundaries around what our role and responsibility is," she said. "If there was a desire to expand that, that would be a political decision as opposed to a decision from this office."

Province to take closer look at data

The P.E.I. Department of Justice and Public Safety says the Police Act does give the justice minister and the attorney general broad oversight that can be used to request an investigation.

The department said that should a broader investigation be needed, the minister or cabinet can request the police commissioner conduct such a review.

The province is also taking steps to better understand the nature of complaints made against P.E.I. police officers.

P.E.I's director of public safety, Brody Connolly, said the department receives annual reports from the police commissioner, but that there's a need to better analyze that information.

We're going to start getting into that a little bit deeper, trying to find some trends ... so we can address any issues that we may see.- Brody Connolly, director of public safety

Connolly said a person was hired in the last two months who will be doing data analysis within the department. That includes taking a closer look at police complaints over time. 

"We're going to take this information from the commissioner,"  Connolly said. "We're going to start getting into that a little bit deeper, trying to find some trends, find some common themes with some of these reports so we can address any issues that we may see."

Connolly couldn't say if the department's analysis would be made public. 

"If we see trends or if things are trending in this direction or there's an issue with this type of a complaint, I think at that point in time, we might be able to make some recommendations, work collaboratively to try to address some of those issues," he said.

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