Niagara Police Officers Caught Cheating On Test

A Commentary by Doug Draper

These are the people we are supposed to look up to. They are people who swear an oath to uphold the laws of the land. They are role models for our community.

How disturbing it is then to hear and read CBC reports this June 13 that several police officers in the Niagara Regional Police Service have been caught cheating on an exam they must take to earn a promotion.

According to the CBC report, about 75 officers wrote the exam this spring as part of a process they had to go through to apply for 17 sergeant and staff sergeant positions. At least some of them had apparently received advance information about the questions they would be asked on the test.

“It’s very disappointing,” NRP Chief Wendy Southall was quoted telling CBC. “The most important thing I believe in their day-to-day duties, aside from the operational techniques that they know, is honesty and integrity,” added the police chief. “And do some breach it? Unfortunately they do … it’s a very small number.”
Southall reportedly went on to confirm that some officers are facing “discipline” but she wouldn’t say how many or what the punishment may be. According to an Ontario Police Services Act that, as the people of Niagara region have discovered before when it comes to salaries and other police matters, the interest of the police override the interests of the general public, so the names of the officers aren’t being released either.

The statement in The St. Catharines Standard, from a police union representative Paul Di Simoni, was predictably supportive of the officers in question. “They’re all excellent officers, but it’s a situation which they found themselves in,” Di Simoni was quoted telling the newspaper. “It shouldn’t reflect on their ability as professionals, as police officers or in the role they play serving the public in the community.”

It shouldn’t?

These are individuals the public counts on to conduct their duties fairly and honestly and if someone hadn’t blown the whistle, some of these individuals may have been promoted to jobs they would not receive passage to if the tests were written fairly. What’s more, we are talking about promotions to positions in our police force that demand a great deal of law enforcement responsibility and that pay well. The compensation is generous enough, in fact, that there were more than a few sergeants working on the NRP named on last year’s provincial “sunshine list” for public servants earning more than $100,000.

Further to this, what does Di Simoni mean when he was quoted saying that for these “excellent officers,” this was “a situation which they found themselves in.”

Well, dear sir, if these officers are so “excellent” and they received leaked copies of the questions for the exam, the situation they found themselves in should have involved going straight to the police chief and letting her know what was going on. One would think that a decent chief, which Wendy Southall, would have appreciated the “honesty and integrity” she hopes for out of her officers. And it may have spared her and the force the embarrassment of this episode playing out in the media.

By the way, it would be interesting to see what Jim Bradley, the Liberal MPP for St. Catharines who just happens to be the province’s minister of community safety and correctional services with policing under his jurisdiction, will do about this situation. Will he cower before a powerful police union few governments in this province have ever had the guts to challenge, or will he do whatever it takes, including making amendments to the police act if necessary, to see that the offending parties are exposed and receive the punishment they deserve?

Come on Jim, show us some metal.

(We encourage you to share your comments on this issue below and to encourage your friends and associates to visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com  for news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to residents in our greater Niagara region and beyond.)