VPD Officer Was Quietly Investigated over an Abusive Relationship with Teen

A brief mention of an abusive relationship between a Vancouver police officer and a teen he met at school in a recent police watchdog report shows a need for more transparency around the identities of officers who commit misconduct, says a civil liberties advocate.

Without knowing the officer’s name, the public has no way of knowing if he went on to work with another police department or to work with young adults, said Meghan McDermott, policy director with the BC Civil Liberties Association.

"Where is he now? He might be working as a member of the RCMP somewhere and he might be in a school in the Okanagan. We don't know,” McDermott said.

A short description of the investigation into the police officer’s conduct is included in the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner’s annual report for 2024-25. An appendix tucked into the back of the report revealed a misconduct investigation into a Vancouver police officer for engaging in an inappropriate relationship with a teenager he met at a local high school.

The investigation was initiated by a request from the Vancouver Police Department, and the incident itself happened between 2018 and 2022.

The commissioner’s brief investigation description does not name the officer, the former student or the school. It does say the officer attended the high school to deliver a presentation on policing, where he met the student. The officer and the student would go on to exchange emails about a policing career.

After the student graduated, the two started an intimate relationship. The investigation summary says the officer lied to the student about his age and was both emotionally and verbally abusive towards the young woman.

When The Tyee brought this to Vancouver School Board communications staff to inquire whether this had occurred at one of the district’s schools, the VSB told The Tyee it was unaware of the incident or any investigation.

The Tyee received the same response from the Federation of Independent School Associations, which represents private school associations in B.C., when we asked if this had happened at a Vancouver private school.

The Tyee requested an interview with Vancouver police Chief Steve Rai, but he was not made available. Instead media relations officer Const. Tania Visintin sent an emailed statement to The Tyee.

“VPD became aware of the relationship once the female had graduated, and we immediately notified the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner,” the statement read.

“Although not criminal in nature, the relationship was highly inappropriate. The officer was dismissed.”

Visintin directed further questions to the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner.

The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner is a civilian body of the provincial legislature that initiates and oversees investigations into municipal police force misconduct in B.C., which are usually conducted by other police.

Unlike the Independent Investigations Office of BC, which investigates police-caused death or serious harm, the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner does not have the power to conduct its own investigations.

The commissioner's office informed The Tyee it would not provide information about the case beyond what was included in its report summary.

But it did inform us the file date of 2023 could indicate either when the complaint was made or when its investigation began.

The Vancouver Police Department must be more transparent about the incident, said the BC Civil Liberties Association’s McDermott. The BCCLA has advocated against police in schools and has written a pamphlet for students about their rights when dealing with police.

“I would want to know the name of the school,” McDermott said, adding it’s likely there is a school liaison officer working in the school today, as they work in most public and some private secondary schools in Vancouver.

“What is that school doing now to protect them from the programming and policing that is now embedded in that school?”

Investigations into incidents where teachers engage in inappropriate relationships with students are often published in the media, sometimes with teachers’ names and the consequences they face, including their firing and suspension of their teaching certificates. There are also searchable online databases for both the status of educators’ teaching certificates and their discipline records.

The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner’s searchable online database provides brief investigation summaries that name the police force, but typically do not name the member under investigation.

McDermott said police who work with students avoid the level of transparency and accountability to which we hold kindergarten to Grade 12 teachers.

“It’s sadly not that surprising. This is what we get when our politicians are asleep at the wheel and deferential to these institutions,” she said, adding that U.S. research into police in schools revealed allegations of police sexually assaulting and harassing students, particularly Black students, trans students and gender-expansive students.

Teachers held to greater scrutiny, transparency

School presentations by police are a task school liaison officers took on before the program was cancelled in Vancouver School Board schools in 2021, and again after it was reinstated in September 2023.

But there is no indication in the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner report investigation summary that this officer was a school liaison officer.

The investigation summary provided by the commissioner’s office says the officer admitted to their misconduct.

“The Discipline Authority noted the seriousness of the misconduct, that the member was in a clear position of trust, influence, and authority and would have significant influence over the female’s career aspirations,” the investigation summary reads.

The “Discipline Authority” is the police officer assigned to investigate the alleged misconduct. While some case summaries in the report noted an external discipline authority was hired, meaning an officer from another police department, this case summary did not.

“The Discipline Authority also noted the abusive and demeaning behaviour was shown to be sustained throughout the relationship rather than limited to a single outburst, and that the member kept the relationship hidden, indicating he understood the relationship was inappropriate,” the investigation summary reads.

The investigation determined the officer had committed discreditable conduct, defined as conduct that discredits the police department.

The summary says the officer was dismissed in one paragraph, but in another section it states the officer quit the Vancouver Police Department before the disciplinary proceeding was finished.

“We know through [The Tyee’s] reporting that the ‘safety of officers’ and ‘privacy’ and everything is invoked so that they don’t share who’s posted where. And that’s in the case of them being at schools,” McDermott said, referring to The Tyee’s nearly two-year-long effort to get basic information about school liaison officers’ identities, school assignments and training.

Unlike in public schools in B.C., which often publish the names of their teachers, administrators and support staff on school websites, there are no online directories for police officers. The Vancouver Police Department did recently start publishing information about the names of school liaison officers and the schools they are assigned to, following The Tyee’s efforts to obtain the information.

A track record of sexual assault, domestic violence in policing

This incident shares similarities with other cases of Vancouver Police Department officers engaging in inappropriate relationships or even sexual assault of women they have power over, McDermott said.

“From the RCMP down to the VPD, we know that there’s a misogynistic culture, or a racist culture or a defensive culture. We see it time and time again, through either lawsuits being filed, inquiries or reports looking into it,” McDermott said.

This includes the case of former VPD detective Jim Fisher, who was convicted of breach of trust and sexual exploitation in 2018 after he forcibly kissed two teenage girls under 18. The girls had been victims of a pimp Fisher had been investigating as a member of the VPD’s counter-exploitation unit.

In 2019, VPD Const. Nicole Chan took her own life after she accused Sgt. Dave Van Patten in the force’s human relations department of blackmail and sexual assault.

Most recently Vancouver police Sgt. Keiron McConnell retired from the force after admitting to sexually harassing five women. Two of the women were VPD officers under his command, and the other three were former students of his at Royal Roads University and Kwantlen Polytechnic University, where he worked as an instructor.

But it’s not just the Vancouver police.

Last year CBC revealed that one in three Ontario police suspensions between 2013 and 2024 were based on accusations of domestic violence, sexual assault or sexual harassment.

In 2020 the federal government settled a class-action lawsuit brought against the RCMP with $100 million for up to 3,500 potential complainants, women who worked in non-policing roles on the force between 1974 and 2019 and were subjected to gender-based discrimination, harassment and assault.

A related report authored by three retired justices found a “shocking” level of violence and sexual assault allegations against officers.

“It’s an attitude problem, it’s a cultural problem, and sadly, here we are at the end of 2025, and we continue to see this,” said McDermott.

Currently the BC Civil Liberties Association’s free Police in Schools Pocketbook for students does not cover inappropriate relationships with or sexual overtures by police officers towards students.

But McDermott said they would consider adding this topic in the future, to “draw attention to what we know about these existing and historic situations, and to describe what the law says about intimate partner violence, about people in positions of authority using that authority."