(Prime Time Crime exclusive Oct. 13, 2004)
Time to go for Chief under fire
By Leo Knight
In April I told you of the Staff Sergeant in the Calgary Police Service who had a number of civil suits filed against him by fellow cops who claim he defrauded them of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Calgary Chief, Jack Beaton had decided not to suspend the senior officer, Kirk McCallum, while internal investigations were continuing.
That, in itself, was unbelievable. Beaton, and all police chiefs, need to maintain public confidence in their departments. This is crucial to their job. In doing nothing in this matter, Beaton failed.
After referring the CPS investigation to the RCMP, criminal charges of fraud have now been laid against McCallum and Beaton has finally acted. As I said at the time, it doesn’t have anything to do with the guilt or innocence of McCallum. That will be decided in due course by a court. It has everything to do with public confidence and the higher standard that police are held to. The allegations against a senior member of his department were serious enough that McCallum’s ability to do his job and lead his subordinate officers was compromised. And with that, Beaton should have acted. But he didn’t.
By all accounts Jack Beaton is a nice man. But nice is not a pre-requisite for the job. Last week several other allegations bubbled over into the local media.
Beaton is now reaping what he has sown. Last week a newly retired officer, Tim Goodwin, wrote a letter to the Solicitor General asking for an investigation into the “lack of responsibility and accountability” present in the Calgary Police Service.
Goodwin referred to an incident where another Staff Sergeant, this time Carl Desantis, arrived at the scene of a fatal motor vehicle accident with booze on his breath while operating a police car. According to Goodwin, the investigators at the scene contacted the duty inspector who in turn contacted a Deputy Chief Constable who directed no action be taken.
The backlash that resulted after the Calgary Sun ran the story without identifying those involved, wobbled the Chief. Deputy Chief Rick Hanson issued a memo to the department saying he had never received such a call from a Duty Inspector and consequently had never issued a “make it go away” order.
Hanson demanded an independent inquiry be conducted by the RCMP. Another one. The Mounties should probably start leasing some office space at CPS headquarters.
At any rate, Hanson is quite right, according to my sources. He didn’t receive that call. Even though Hanson is nominally responsible for the Traffic Section, the duty inspector called another Deputy Chief for instruction. The same Deputy, I’m told, who apparently protected Desantis from racism and harassment allegations made by former CPS officer Shon Marsh.
Marsh has made his allegations in complaints to the Police Commissioner and in a civil suit filed against the Chief and the Department. Interesting.
Ironically, another police officer, Taufiq Shah, has also filed a complaint of racism and harassment against the Department and filed a civil suit too. One of the people named by Shah is none other that Kirk McCallum.
Shah’s claim alleges some pretty disgusting behaviour by supposedly professional police officers. Shah alleges he was called names like “sand nigger” and “terrorist” by his Sergeant, Darwin Pearce. He also alleges Pearce pointed his service weapon at him and engaged in a weapons drawn “show down” in the briefing room of the police station.
One of the officers involved in that was a junior constable, who has since been tried in service court, found guilty and suspended. But hey, what about Pearce or his boss, Kirk McCallum?
If I didn’t know better, I’d say they had a well-placed rabbi. Perhaps a Deputy Chief Constable? One who takes phone calls late at night?
With the media heat turned up in Calgary, outside inquiries being done by the RCMP into actions by his most senior officers and apparent cover-ups of something as insidious as blatant racism, the Chief Constable is facing a credibility challenge and a significant loss of public confidence.
For Jack Beaton it remains to be seen if he can regain that confidence. Unfortunately, a survey done last month by the police association and released last week, showed he had already lost the confidence of the men and women under his command. Seventy per cent of police officers in his city think he should go.
And so he should. It’s long past time.
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