News: Chief pleased cop tried to make amends for racist e-mail

Published in the May 8th issue of The Edmonton Sun. News


Chief pleased cop tried to make amends for racist e-mail

LINDA HOANG
Edmonton Sun

Edmonton police Chief Mike Boyd says he’s happy that the officer responsible for the racist e-mail that circulated within the Edmonton Police Service in 2002 at least made an effort to apologize.

“I was pleased with the officer involved,” Boyd told reporters Friday.

“That he wanted to come forward to the (aboriginal) community, he wanted to make it right and he did meet and convey his apologies to them.”

Attempted to hide e-mail

A ruling by the Law Enforcement Review Board Thursday, said the Edmonton Police Service tried to hide the fact that the racist e-mail existed.

The e-mail in question was written and distributed by Const. Scott Carter in 2002, entitled “Ten Principals of Downtown Policing” and contained racial remarks toward aboriginal people.

Carter wrote that “an ‘aboriginal’ is really just an Indian” and calls the police van used to pick up drunks, “the Mobile Native Friendship Centre.” He also suggested police reports include words like “tranny,” “whore” and “a– f—ed.”

Found guilty

Carter was found guilty of insubordination and discreditable conduct under the Police Act.

While Boyd said the situation occurred before he joined the EPS, he did express his opposition towards the content of the e-mail and said something like that would not happen again.

“We’ve taken a lot of steps in the last four years that I’ve been chief,” Boyd said. “We’ve changed policies … we’ve made it really clear that using e-mail for purposes like that is totally improper, totally against policy, and that’s behind us now.”

On Thursday, the Solicitor General and Public Security office launched an online survey asking Albertans for their opinion on how to better handle police discipline and how to handle complaints about police conduct, service and policy.

The deadline for submissions is June 4.

— With files from Candice Ward

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