1 Comment

• 
  Murray - 9 years ago

  The nature of a police officers job requires them to deal with members of the public who are upset and sometimes feel they are treated unfairly. This fact leaves officers open to complaints and malicious accusations and in the vast majority of situations those accusations are unfounded. To suspend officers without pay before any allegations have been proven would be blatantly unfair and unjust and would result in lost homes, and destroyed families. Officers deserve to have any complaints or charges proven in court or Police Act hearing. To suspend without pay effectively means they are fired before any allegations are proven. The larger issue here is the glacial pace of court proceedings as well as associated Police Act hearings. If matters were dealt with promptly instead of being drawn out for sometimes years, this issue would rarely ever arise. If an officer is later exonerated , how do you compensate them for a lost home, destroyed credit rating, or the family stress that they have endured? Not to mention having to rebuild their reputation. Officers deserve to be paid when allegations are directed at them, and they deserve to have prompt hearings to allow the evidence to be heard and an opportunity to clear their names. These police chiefs seem to have forgotten that they were once constables themselves potentially facing frivolous allegations. Being safely tucked in their offices has changed their outlook a bit.