Paid police suspensions and legal settlements

Via FOI, between 2018-23, VicPD suspended 6 officers with pay for a total of 7,118 hours, and 7 without pay for a total of 1,296 hours. Positions weren’t provided, but at 1st class constable rates, the city would've paid officers about $416,000 plus benefits to stay home.

7,118 hours is 3.4 years of officer time suspended with pay. Note there’s overlap between officers suspended w/pay and without. Despite their alleged commitment to transparency, as with anything that reflects unfavourably on VicPD, they do not actively report officer suspensions.

In December, I also asked VicPD for the number of officers currently on leave, and the reason for that leave. In their response, they said only one officer was currently suspended with pay as of January 25, 2024 (possibly Jose Bingham).

There’s been some good CBC reporting recently on officer suspensions in Ontario, which cost approximately $134 million over 11 years.

I also FOI'd how much VicPD spent on settlements. They chose to withhold that information. I asked how much they spent on legal fees related to civil/criminal proceedings where VicPD or officers were the defendant/respondent/accused, but they said they couldn't compile that info.

Finally, here is a related FOI on the number of VicPD officers who retired while under investigation.