Abbreviation NWPD | Formed 1873 | |
Motto Safety, Service, Friendship Annual budget 23.5 million CDN (2012) Legal personality Governmental: Government agency Operations jurisdiction* City of New Westminster in the province of British Columbia, Canada | ||
The New Westminster Police Department (NWPD) is the police force for the City of New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada.
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. The Chief Constable is Dave Jones. The other senior managers are Deputy Chief Constable Dave Jansen, Inspector Paul Hyland, Inspector Todd Matsumoto, Inspector Chris Mullin, Inspector Trevor Dudar and Comptroller Mark Wilson. The police station is located at 6th and Columbia Streets at 555 Columbia, which includes a police museum.
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.
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.
On January 28, 2009, Crown counsel approved one count of assault against Cst. Klassen and one count of robbery against Cst. Gillan. 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.
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.