False traffic warning audit proves it's not a systemic problem, Ottawa police inspector says

An audit into falsetrafficwarnings issued by Ottawa police officers which has so far led to nine officers being re-assigned after two others were suspended has proved it's not a systemic issue at the force, says the inspector who oversees the unit investigating the officers.

"We did an audit to see if this was a systemic issue, and obviously the audit proved it wasn't, because on the bulk, it's a wide swathof our officers are doing a really good job; it's just a small percentage that went off on a little bit of a tangent," Insp. Chris Rheaume told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morningon Wednesday.

• 11 Ottawa police officers investigated over false traffic warnings

Rheaume oversees the Ottawa police professional standards section, which is currently investigating 11 officers for issuing fake warnings.The probe could take anywhere from three to sixmonths, depending on how many fake warnings were entered into the system, he said.

No formal charges have yet been laid against the officers.

What's a falsewarning?

Officers have the authority to give verbal andwritten warnings to drivers, in addition to tickets that carry fines.

Whenapolice officer pulls someone over for speedingand gives thatdriver aticket, the officer might also issue a written warning if the driver failed to show up-to-date insurance or registration, or if a tail light was out, for example.

Police allege officers handed out tickets, then typed upwritten warnings for other infractions that either didn't occur at all or weren't communicated in any wayto the drivers. Those fake warnings were thenenteredinto the police database.

"It's obviously something that's unethical, we think," Rheaumetold Ottawa Morning host Robyn Bresnahan."But like I said, until we have proof in the pudding and we actually have the evidence to say that this officer handed out these many fake warnings, you know, we can't really say [how the force is reacting to the allegations]at this moment."

'Potentially, it was to boost their stats'

On Tuesday, after police issued a media release about the nine officers being reassigned to administrative duties, Chief Charles Bordeleau said the fake warning tickets may have been written to increase statistics.

"What we're hearing is that, potentially, it was to boost their stats for potential transfers or for their performance appraisals," Bordeleau said.

The professional standard's investigation has caused the force to reevaluate its use of an officer's ticket statistics in giving promotions, Bordeleau said. But he added thatthose statistics are still an indicator of an officer's performance.

"We will always have a need to evaluate our officers, to measure their performance, and one of their core duties is traffic enforcement," he said.

"But I'd rather see an officer give a number of tickets that have the quality because they're based on traffic problems being identified in the community, as opposed to just giving tickets for the sake of giving tickets."

Bordeleau said suspectedfalse warnings remain in the police database for now as the investigation continues.Warnings that are found to be unsubstantiated will be removed from the database, he said.

Bordeleau said the number of suspected false tickets "varies from officer to officer."He did not disclose a numberas the investigation continues.

Bordeleauemphasized thatthe audit suggested that proper procedure surrounding warning tickets was followed by the "vast majority of officers."Periodic audits will continue to monitor warning tickets, he said.