SiRT investigation finds N.B. RCMP officer did not commit breach of trust

The waiting area of the Serious Incident Response Team, the province's independent police watchdog agency, is seen in Halifax on Wednesday, April 18, 2018. (Andrew Vaughan)

The Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT) has found no reasonable grounds to believe members of the RCMP in New Brunswick committed a criminal offence after an impaired driving investigation involving a son of one of the officers.

The RCMP officer’s son was in a collision resulting in a driving suspension after a roadside impaired driving investigation by a Department of Justice and Public Safety (JSP) officer on Feb. 11.

“Following the suspension, and while an appeal was ongoing, the RCMP officer communicated with JPS employees to try and resolve issues with his son’s file,” a release from SiRT reads.

According to the release, the RCMP officer referenced his rank and experience while communicating with the JSP employees. The officer also shared an unauthorized RCMP case analysis of the incident prepared by another RCMP officer that highlighted the errors of the investigation.

Following this exchange, JSP contacted RCMP, which resulted in SiRT being contacted to investigate both officers.

The investigation started immediately.

A summary of the investigation from SiRT found there is no evidence to conclude the officer acted for a purpose other than the public good.

“While [the officer] had a personal interest in the matter, I cannot conclude his actions were dishonest, corrupt, or oppressive. Some could view his actions as partial, but a review of the evidence indicates that although it may have been poor judgment the behaviour did not rise to this level,” the summary reads.

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