In the past nine months, Victoria Police Chief Frank Elsner’s situation has grown steadily more serious. And the processes underway to deal with it have gotten more complicated. The police complaints commissioner’s move on Friday ratchets up both the severity and the complexity.
The commission started up three new lines of inquiry into allegations Elsner attempted a coverup of evidence relevant to earlier complaints about his conduct.
Here’s a timeline that illustrates how the stakes have risen steadily, and how all the investigations have taken shape.
August 2015 — Concern was raised privately about some social-media messages between Elsner and a female Saanich officer who is married to one of his subordinates in the Victoria department. Victoria and Esquimalt mayors Lisa Helps and Barb Desjardins, police board co-chairs, confidentially retained a lawyer to investigate. The lawyer concluded later in the year there was no physical relationship, but the messages were inappropriate.
Dec. 4 — The mayors informed the police board privately of the case and the board expressed confidence in the chief. The mayors later sidestepped media questions about whether there were any formal complaints or investigations regarding the chief.
Dec. 7 — The Vancouver Sun reported on the text messages and Elsner publicly acknowledged them, saying he was humiliated. He emailed his entire department an apology. He said he’d learned “how much of a toll these lengthy, process-driven investigations take on all the people affected by them. As your chief, I pledge to make the changes necessary in our process to be far more humane in our approach.”
As the mayors were rapped for misleading the public, Victoria police voted non-confidence in their chief, citing the messages and other concerns about harassment and bullying of staff.
Dec. 18 — The Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner weighed in and Elsner stepped aside on paid leave ($205,000 salary) soon after. The commission relieved the mayors of their disciplinary authority, saying internal processes can’t address the “tension and dissonance” within the department. The commission noted the mayors’ “incomplete” public statements and disclosed complaints that they had withheld information from board members.
It started a new investigation of the text messages, saying the first confidential one was inadequate. It noted evidence Elsner had allegedly misled the spouse involved and had improperly contacted witnesses. The outline added up to five instances of possible misconduct.
The OPCC also started a probe of the harassment allegations. It named two different disciplinary authorities to oversee the probes; former judge Carole Baird Ellan for the text-messaging case and former judge Ian Pitfield for the harassment. The OPCC also handed responsibility for all the investigations to the RCMP and Vancouver police.
March 15 — Elsner filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court to halt the OPCC probe, stop the RCMP investigation, prevent a search of his electronic devices and delete the OPCC’s critical December summation of his case from its website. The petition claims the OPCC has no authority to order external investigations into conduct that has been the subject of an internal investigation.
He also filed an affidavit saying he fears his reputation has been “irreparably tarnished” and his career ended by the public re-opening of the investigation. There is no ruling yet.
April 29 — The OPCC announced three more allegations were being investigated. They are: that Elsner tried to procure a statement from a potential witness knowing it to be false or misleading, that he requested that a potential witness destroy electronic data and that he tried to access a department server to erase or try to erase emails.
The allegations cover the time period of both the first internal investigation commissioned by the mayors and the subsequent external ones. The Victoria and Esquimalt Police Board is again sidelined because of its previous handling of the case.
To sum up, that’s five claims of misconduct related to social-media messages with a subordinate’s wife, three alleged breaches of trust related to allegations of harassment, and three more discreditable-conduct claims involving Elsner’s alleged efforts to subvert investigations.
Two outside police departments are investigating and reporting to two retired judges.
Taxpayers are paying for it all, and covering Elsner’s legal bills in his bid to have it all quashed, along with his ongoing salary.
Due process will roll on, but Elsner’s concerns about his career look well-grounded.
