Regina police officer says Semenchuck abuse case ‘sheds a bad light on all of us’

Recently there has been no shortage of stories about police officers doing bad things.

In Toronto, several police officers have been charged with corruption. Controversy has roiled over fatal shootings by ICE agents in the U.S. A Saskatoon police officer has been fired over his association with a motorcycle gang. And in Regina, where the police chief was recently fired for “inappropriate private communications” with another police board member, a former officer was just sentenced for abusing his power to prey on vulnerable women.

Read more:

• Seven Toronto cops charged in corruption, organized crime investigation: York police
• Fired cop testifies Hells Angel associate was like a ‘little brother’
• No jail time for former Regina police officer who snooped on 33 victims

That Regina officer, Robert Semenchuck, was given a two-year sentence in the community on Friday, six months of which will be spent under house arrest. He pleaded guilty to charges of abuse of power and unauthorized use of a computer.

The Regina Police Service said it’s been working to improve its systems and procedures to stop anything similar from happening again.

Casey Ward is an officer the Regina Police Service who also serves as president of the Saskatchewan Federation of Police Officers and sits on the Canadian Police Association’s board. On Tuesday, he joined The Evan Bray Show to share his thoughts after Semenchuck’s sentencing.

Listen to the full interview or read the transcript below:

The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity

EVAN BRAY: Can you just talk about what the other officers feel when these stories come to light?

CASEY WARD: I think there’s a huge frustration for our members. Even for myself, it took me over two years to get on with the Regina Police Service, and we really honour the service that we represent and the badges that we wear, so when that happens it sheds a bad light on all of us, so our members are affected day to day.

That sense of anger and frustration has to be tough from the good officers that are out there trying to do their job?

WARD: I think the level of scrutiny on police is the highest in any profession there is out there, but also the level of oversight. There’s no profession that has more independent oversight than policing, so we want our members to go out there and do great work in our communities, day in and day out, and when these things happen we want our members to be investigated and be held accountable for their actions.

Yet, many people will say, “Well, if there’s so much oversight, how do things like this happen?”

WARD: Well, I think the one thing that’s – not saying positive – but the person was caught. So, you see, these incidents that happened in Regina, Toronto and Saskatoon, and members were held accountable because an investigation was done. It’s come to light, and it’s before the courts.

How important is it, Casey, for transparency through the process? And I’m not just talking with the public. I think the transparency with the public is a given, but in the police organization?

WARD: Transparency is the biggest thing. If you think about it, 20 or 30 years ago, this could happen and no one would have known about it. Our services across Canada, when these things happen, come to the forefront and say “Listen. Here’s the issue that happened. Here’s how the person was held accountable, and this is what we’re doing to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

And that’s what our members want, too, so any time these things happen there’s rigorous training, there’s processes that get looked at and reviewed to make sure that these things don’t happen again.

You mentioned 30 years ago this might have been handled differently. What, in your view, has changed?

WARD: It’s independent oversight, and it’s something that we have all embraced. So when a complaint comes in, there’s an independent agency that reviews, it goes to a tribunal that reviews that investigation and then it goes to the Crown.

There’s so many different levels of that oversight for any complaint that does come in, where 20, 30 years ago it was investigated by members of that service. And then the chief, at the end of the day, would come up with the discipline. So many levels of independent oversight nowadays that hold our members accountable.

Do officers feel comfortable coming forward if they see something that they know isn’t right within their organization?

WARD: Absolutely. We’ve all been working to have good, psychologically safe workplaces, and one of the things I’ll tell you right now, our members, the thing they hate the most is bad police officers, because we work so hard to build that community respect and that community confidence. So when a member does do something to tarnish that, that really affects us.

When things happen, our members do come forward and report it up the chain of command and stop those things from happening. The other thing is, we know that we’re being audio and videotaped every single minute of our day when we’re working, so to even try and hide something, it’d be virtually impossible to do.

Our members come forward and, even if they are just a bystander, if they don’t report it they can actually be disciplined under the police act for not doing something and not reporting it.

Robert Semenchuck was gathering information in computer systems behind the scenes, so there will be people who say there’s clearly not enough oversight. Have you had any conversations about further changes that might be required to prevent things like this happening in the future?

WARD: We were just talking at our national meeting with our friends from Toronto, and I think every service, every single day, is looking at different processes to protect their information. You think about information even being stolen, artificial intelligence, all those sort of things.

I know our chiefs in our province every day are looking at ways to ensure that there is public trust, to ensure that there aren’t privacy breaches. And remember, the full (Local Authority Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act) is something that’s new to Saskatchewan (police) in the past years, so understanding that legislation, ensuring that is abided by and our officers are held accountable every single day when they abuse that power.

You’re the president of the Saskatchewan Federation of Police Officers. What is your message about the state of policing, especially in light of some of these terrible incidents that have come to light recently?

WARD: The thing is, don’t paint everyone with the same brush. Every one of our members is your neighbour, coaches probably one of your children, volunteers at the school.

And tell me another profession that does more in the community. Just last week, the Regina Police Service had a round dance for our community. We deal every day with our newcomers and our Open Door Society. We actually all have community engagement units that look at how we bridge the gap between our service and our community. So tell me another profession that does more to build public trust.

Now, it’s absolutely frustrating when these things happens, but we continue day to day to go out and do respectful, professional service throughout all our communities, and all their members are so involved when they’re working and off-duty.

Bad things do happen, but also know, you know, in Saskatchewan, when people feel that when they need to call the police, they’re going to be there and provide them that respectful, professional service.