Three investigations into police misconduct within the New Westminster Police Department are now over, according to the police complaint office’s quarterly report.
The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, B.C.’s disciplinary authority for municipal police departments, recently released its first quarter report. In it, New Westminster’s police force was one of four departments out of 14 where investigations into misconduct were concluded between April 1 and June 30.
Two of the cases are likely still fresh in the minds of New Westminster residents.
The first being the firing of officer Adam Spindor, an eight-year veteran of the police force who was accused of stealing money from a fund run by officers in the department’s street crime unit. Spindor was fired from the department in March, when these allegations came to light, and in April he was charged with two counts of theft and one count of breach of trust.
The 30-year-old, who is not in custody at this time, is scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 26 to fix a date for his trial.
The investigation into a New West police officer who was suspended from duty only three days after he was hired by the department was also concluded during the complaints office’s first quarter, according to the report.
The officer, whose name is not included in the report, was accused of assaulting his girlfriend when an argument between the two escalated. The New Westminster Police Department suspended him without pay immediately, and he resigned about two weeks later, according to the report.
The third investigation resulted in both verbal and written reprimand for the police officer in question, after he failed to properly investigate an alleged sexual assault.
The report notes the officer “neglected to conduct reasonable followup” during the investigation. It’s also noted the officer didn’t submit a Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System report within 24 days of the assault or notify the Ministry of Child and Family Services. (The Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System tracks violent crimes across jurisdictions in Canada.) The officer also neglected to notify the victim that the investigation had ended and why.
