Police Chief suspension – result of complaint in office

The chief of the Espanola Police Service has been suspended over an alleged code of conduct violation.
The Espanola Police Services Board said in a release, a week ago Tuesday, that Chief Steven Edwards has been “suspended with pay pending an investigation,” in accordance with a section of the Police Services Act concerning misconduct.
Section 77 (4) of the act authorizes a police board to review a complaint concerning a chief of police and, if determined the chief’s conduct; “may constitute an offence under a law” or misconduct as defined in the act, it can ask the Ontario Police Commission to “assign the chief of police of another police force to cause the complaint to be investigated promptly.”
Police Board Chair, Mary-Lou Mick, says a complaint was made on Wednesday, December 6th, by a member of the police service, and Chief Edwards was suspended on Thursday, December 7th.
Mick said she would not speak to the specific nature of the complaint at this point in the process, other than to say it falls within code of conduct rules that are consistent for all police services in Ontario, adding the board sought legal advice after fielding the complaint “to find out whether charges should be laid, and according to the lawyer the charges should be laid under code of conduct.”
An investigation will be carried out by the Ontario Civilian Police Commission, she said, as well as by an outside police force.
Once that process is complete, “they will determine what the actual charges are and go from there,” she said. “I can’t tell you what nature they are, because I don’t know where they fall under the police act.”
She said ordinarily the board would have turned to the Espanola OPP as an outside source to investigate a matter like this, but since the municipality is in the midst of a review to see if the OPP should take over policing in the town, it was felt there would be a conflict of interest and the integrity of the investigation could be compromised.
“It has to be arm’s-length,” she said. “It could have been the OPP, but because of the costing situation, we don’t feel it is right to bring them in. Council has asked for a costing to determine if we should stay with a municipal force or go with the OPP.”
Instead, the board is engaging a police service from southern Ontario, she said, to investigate the allegation against the chief.
In the meantime, Sgt. William Lamour has been assigned as interim police chief. He is the highest-ranking officer in Espanola and will temporarily fill the position, until the police board can recruit another individual to be interim chief.
“We will be looking to bring in a more permanent temporary chief, I guess you could call it, until everything is resolved,” she said. “We are already in contact with someone and have a tentative candidate.”
Mick said it could take quite a while before the investigation is complete.
“This is going to be a fairly long investigation,” she said. “Everybody will have to be interviewed. I can’t see it happening immediately.”
However, by law, the investigation must be completed within six months.
Edwards became a member of the Espanola Police Service on May 29, 1995, re-locating back to the area from London, Ontario where he served as a police constable for five years.
In 1999, on the approval of former Chief Ray Freeman, the Police Services Board, and with support of the community, the K9 program was developed with Edwards as the dog handler. Edwards and Jag, his German Shepherd, became a certified police K9 team in April 2000.
On June 1, 2001, Edwards was appointed Acting Sergeant and on January 1, 2007, he was promoted to rank of Sergeant. In 2011, Edwards was honoured with the Governor General’s 20 year Police Exemplary Service Medal.
On January 7, 2015, he was sworn in as Espanola’s sixth police chief.