Victoria’s police chief has been reprimanded for leaving his loaded firearm under the seat of his police cruiser while he was at a press conference last Friday revealing that the department had misplaced a cache of riot gear.

Jamie Graham admitted Wednesday that he left his service pistol holstered under the driver’s seat of his unmarked car, parked at police headquarter’s locked underground parkade, while he spoke to the media about the “unacceptable” disappearance of equipment.

Graham said in a statement that he ordered a thorough search of the department’s buildings and cars in an attempt to find a missing shotgun, tear gas, pepper balls and tactical vests.

Instead, detectives found the chief’s pistol stored under the seat of his car, which is contrary to department policy that firearms stored at headquarters “must be unloaded, placed inside a locking drawer within a locked locker, and not be left unattended.”

The department was already being criticized for losing the riot gear, which raised public safety concerns about the equipment ending up in the wrong hands. Victoria police have not said whether the gear was stolen or misplaced and would not say how long it went unaccounted for.

It is still missing.

An investigation into Graham’s gaffe by the department’s deputy chiefs, John Ducker and Del Manak, was forwarded to the chairman of the police board, Mayor Dean Fortin. Fortin gave Graham a written reprimand for neglect of duty.

“Just as I expect every member of this department to take full responsibility for their actions, I take responsibility for this incident and I accept the Discipline Authority’s findings,” Graham said in a statement. “The last thing I want is for this inadvertent mistake to cast a shadow over the hard work that the men and women of VicPD do every day.”

The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner is aware of the decision. Deputy complaint commissioner Rollie Woods said the discipline is in line with similar situations.

Fortin said he did not ask whether the chief has ever left his pistol under his seat before this incident.

“We deal with what is,” Fortin said. “An incident has come to light, we investigate it, we’ve dealt with it and it is certainly our expectation that it won’t happen again.”

Improper storage of a firearm is a criminal offence under the Canadian Criminal Code, but police officers are exempt from this. Fortin said the fact that the pistol was in the locked underground garage means there was no risk to the public.

This is Graham’s second misconduct finding while serving as Victoria police chief. He received a written reprimand for discreditable conduct for comments he made at a Vancouver security conference in November 2009 about an undercover officer supposedly spying on Olympic protesters.

While he was Vancouver police chief, Graham was cited for discreditable conduct for refusing to co-operate with an RCMP investigation.

Graham began a five-year contract with Victoria police in January 2009. Fortin said it’s too early to tell whether the two misconduct findings will have any bearing on whether Graham, 63, is offered another term in 2014.

kderosa@timescolonist.com