Despite a police misconduct probe that found a high-ranking B.C. officer had stalked and harassed his ex-girlfriend for years, a criminal investigation into the case did not result in charges.
Staff Sgt. Andrew Walsh was the head of the detective division for the Saanich Police Department when the woman, who CTV News is calling T.B., made her report to the province's Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner in 2021. The investigation found his actions to be"egregiously serious," including repeated unwanted contact with T.B., using police databases to conduct at least 92 searches on her and her family members, and lying about it during the investigation.
T.B., who served 30 years as a police officer herself, made a police report about Walsh's behaviour, worried for the ongoing safety of herself and her family. T.B. said one of the reasons she was given for this decision was that Walsh had not"done anything" since April of 2021, when the misconduct complaint was filed.
"I can say that that conversation, it made no sense to me. She wasn't able to explain the reasons," T.B. said."She just kept saying, 'Well, it's my assessment. It's my assessment.'"British Columbia is one of just two provinces in Canada where Crown counsel makes the decision to lay a charge. In other jurisdictions it is the police who do so.
The guidelines also say that decisions in these cases"must be expedited" because delays can be distressing to victims who are already living in fear. In addition, the policy says a Peace Bond ought to be considered whenever charges are not approved or in the event that charges are stayed.
After she reported this to investigators, they did another search of Walsh's database queries that revealed he had searched for information about her niece, according to the disciplinary decision.
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