Edmonton Police Watch

Edmonton Sun

Police Chief Mike Boyd has cancelled the pay of a police officer suspended after being charged with impaired driving in a fiery crash that injured a young man.

Brown, who faces 11 charges in connection with the crash, will be charged with unsafe storage of a firearm after his service firearm was allegedly found improperly stored in his home, and one count of misconduct under the Police Service Regulation of Alberta.

Const. Douglas Kurtis Brown, 29, was originally suspended with pay after his BMW collided with a truck on May 11, injuring five people – including an 18-year-old who suffered burns. Brown was off-duty at the time of the crash.

While there was a public outcry over Brown being suspended with pay, it was the two new charges – one criminal – that spurred the police chief to cut off the officer’s paycheque.

“He is now suspended without pay because in my opinion the charges involved exceptional circumstances, particularly the risk of harm and the actual harm to members of the public,” Boyd said today at a hastily called news conference.

“I have done this to protect the public and maintain public confidence in the Edmonton Police Service while the charges against Const. Brown proceed through the criminal justice system and the police disciplinary process,” said Boyd, who refused to answer questions from the media after making his statement.

In the days that followed Brown’s suspension, a petition was launched demanding Brown be suspended without pay. By today, the petition had about 1,200 signatures.

“We’ve just worked so hard for this and I’m speechless,” said Theresa Offermann, who spearheaded the petition and was on hand when Boyd announced Brown’s pay cancellation.

Robert Hollinger, who helped Offermann with the petition, believes the move put pressure on Boyd.

“It absolutely had an impact,” said Hollinger.

“Without the public’s outcry this would just have gone on untouched, and now the right thing has been done.”

A petition rally planned for noon today at the legislature will go ahead. The petition group wants to see a change in provincial regulations so officers charged with impaired driving will be immediately suspended without pay.

After the May 11 crash, Brown faced five charges of impaired driving causing bodily harm, five of dangerous driving causing bodily harm, and one count of driving with over 80 mg of alcohol in his blood.

Investigators also discovered a shotgun privately owned by Brown in the BMW. It was properly stored with a trigger lock. Marijuana was also found in the BMW but it was not clear who the drugs belonged to.

Robert Wasyliw, the 18-year-old injured in the May crash, was taken to University hospital with burns to his back and a broken collarbone after being trapped in his pickup.

Alannah Pasychny, 18, a passenger in Brown’s car at the time of the crash, has said the officer was part of a group who pulled Wasyliw from the burning truck.

“He saved the boy’s life,” she told Sun Media a few days after the crash.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 10:08 am and is filed under News.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.