Mountie should have been fired: police psychologist
Posted May 26, 2012 6:31 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Days after the RCMP admitted that a rogue cop was being transferred to BC from Edmonton, the news is still raising the ire of British Columbians.
“He should no longer be working,” says police psychologist Mike Webster, who has studied the tribunal’s decision to reprimand Don Ray.
“The range of sanctions in serious cases such as the present one was fairly broad: from a reprimand all the way to dismissal. They had the opportunity to dismiss him.”
He says the failure to fire Ray demonstrates that the force cannot provide a safe work place for its employees.
And he believes it flies in the face of statements made by RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson, when he took up his new command in November.
“He said something about rooting out dark-hearted behaviour. Well, if this isn’t dark-hearted behaviour, I don’t know what is,” notes Webster.
Ray has admitted to a number of sexual transgressions, including exposing himself to an employee and having sex with co-workers, with some of the encounters taking place in a polygraph room.
He’s been transferred to BC where he will occupy a federal policing position. Ray was also demoted from staff sergeant to sergeant, and was docked 10 days pay.
He will be in a federal policing position, the RCMP says, many of which are run out of Vancouver’s E-Division headquarters.
On Thursday, E-Division Commander, Deputy Commissioner Craig Callens, reassured employees and the public that Ray would be under tight supervision while working in BC.
