New Westminster Police Department

The New Westminster Police Department (NWPD) is the police force for the City of New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada.

New Westminster Police Department
Heraldic badge of the NWPD
AbbreviationNWPD
Agency overview
Formed1873
Annual budget23.5 million CDN (2012)[1]
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdictionNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Governing bodyNew Westminster Police Board
Constituting instrument
General nature
Headquarters555 Columbia Street
Elected officers responsible
  • The Honourable Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General of British Columbia
  • His Worship Jonathan X. Coté, Mayor & Chair of the New Westminster Police Board
Agency executive
  • Dave Jansen, Acting Chief Constable
Website
http://www.nwpolice.org

The force was created in 1873 when the city council hired Jonathan Morey, a former sergeant with the Royal Engineers, Columbia detachment, who stayed behind after the detachment was disbanded in 1863. Prior to that, New Westminster was policed by ad hoc temporary appointments of members of the community to act as magistrates. The British Columbia Provincial Police also policed the city a few years before the NWPD was formed. The force now has around one hundred members. Key events that affected the development of the city's police department include the Great Fire of 1898, a Bank of Montreal theft in 1911, and the introduction of new policing technologies, such as two-way radio patrol cars in 1935, and the installation of laptop computers in 1997.[2] The police station is located at 6th and Columbia streets at 555 Columbia.

Controversy

On January 21, 2009, three off-duty police officers were arrested and detained overnight after being alleged to racially abuse, assault and participated in a robbery in downtown Vancouver against Firoz (Phil) Khan, a newspaper deliveryman. The police constables came from the Delta Police Department, West Vancouver Police Department and New Westminster Police Service. On January 26, 2009, the Vancouver Police Department recommended to Crown Counsel for criminal charges to be laid against NWPS member Jeffrey Roger Klassen for assault and possession of stolen property and the WVPD officer Griffin Gillan for robbery. At the same time, the DPD officer was cleared of any wrongdoing.[3]

Cst. Klassen was suspended with pay for 30 days pending criminal charges to be laid and was subsequently dismissed from his part-time job at the Justice Institute of British Columbia as a use of force instructor.[4]

On January 28, 2009, Crown Counsel approved one count of assault against Cst. Klassen and one count of robbery against Cst. Gillan.[5] On February 27, 2009, a new charge of possession of stolen property was laid against Cst. Klassen and the police board decided to take him off payroll.[6][7]

On April 5, 2011, a Vancouver provincial court judge found Cst. Klassen guilty of assault, and two weeks later he lost his pay. Just over a year later, on May 7, 2012, the NWPD announced it had accepted Cst. Klassen's resignation.[8] Cst. Klassen's sentence amounted to a conditional discharge with a one-year probation order, and his resignation ended with no severance or financial incentives.[9]

An independent investigation into the incident could also be launched by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner British Columbia once Crown Counsel has cleared the case.

In September 2019, an account belonging to the New Westminster Police Department was banned from Wikipedia after attempting to remove reports of the incident from the Wikipedia article about the Department.[10] A police spokesman subsequently defended the edits, saying "Our goal is to provide up-to-date, open, honest, transparent information to the public."[10]

See also
  • Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of British Columbia
  • E-Comm, 9-1-1 call and dispatch centre for southwestern BC

References
  2. Ted Usher, "A Brief History of the New Westminster Police," Retrieved 4 July 2007.
  3. "Vancouver police officers face robbery, assault charges". Archived from the original on November 9, 2012.
  4. "B.C. officer dismissed from teaching job".
  5. Charges laid in downtown Vancouver police assault
  6. "New Westminster cop faces new charge following downtown attack". Archived from the original on March 8, 2012.
  7. "Officer charged in assault stripped of pay".
  8. "Officer convicted in beating quits New West force".
  9. "NWPD Statement On The Resignation Of Former Constable Jeff Klassen".
  10. Godfrey, Dustin. "New West cops blocked in attempt to scrub off-duty assault from Wikipedia".
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