Peel cop suspended for failing to charge man breaking domestic assault conditions

A Peel Regional Police officer will miss a week of work after being found guilty of neglect of duty for failing to report and charge a man who was found to be breaching domestic assault conditions.

The officer, Const. Brandon Krane, will miss a total of seven days as a result of a Police Services Act disciplinary hearing ruling on Dec. 18, 2015.

The public document describes a year of police interactions with a woman and man, identified only as TP and BB, respectively.

The internal correspondence indicates that BB was charged with assault and ordered by the court to keep away from TP in June 2013. In May 2014, however, Krane and another officer found the two together in a motel room and failed to report it. The documents indicate that although BB had been clearly breaching his conditions, he was not arrested but instead taken to the home of his court surety.

Two days later, police again were called to the same Mississauga motel, only to discover TP dead and BB inside the room.

BB, who called police upon discovering TP’s body, was charged with assault and two counts of breach of recognizance. The assault charge was eventually dropped. The ruling notes that Peel police investigated the woman’s death and later declared it was not a homicide, nor was it suspicious.

“The conscious decision not to arrest and charge BB [in the first incident] and disregard a directive signed to provide safety and protection to victims of domestic violence is a very serious matter,” Supt. Jeff Bond wrote in his ruling. “Constable Krane’s decision not to arrest and charge BB did not provide any safety of TP.”

Bond also noted that officers are required to lay charges in all cases of domestic violence. The Peel Police documents allude to their service’s General Procedure for Domestic and Family Dispute, which reads: “…it is the policy of this Service to protect human life by vigorously investigating incidents of domestic/family violence and supporting victims through a coordinated community response designed to improve the quality of life.”

Pierre Bernard, who represented Krane as a member of the Peel Regional Police Association, submitted eight previous cases to court where Peel police officers failed to act on cases of breach of recognizance in regards to domestic violence cases.

“Constable Krane is not the first police officer who has been found guilty of neglect of duty in relation to a domestic investigation nor is he likely to be, frankly speaking, the last one,” Bernard wrote.

Paul Black, president of the Peel Regional Police Association, said in a statement to CityNews that the officer’s actions are an example of a rare misstep.

“It is unreasonable to think that mistakes will never happen, and when they do, the Service takes steps to correct them.” Black said. “In this case, our officer took full responsibility and receive appropriate corrective discipline.”

Peel Regional Police Chief Jennifer Evans concurs. “Domestics are volatile sometimes, a lot of emotion,” she tells Citynews. “I think officers sometimes don’t use the best judgement. I think this was the case in this one and that’s why we held him responsible.”

Krane pled guilty to one count of neglect of duty. Records show he’s been a Peel Regional Police officer for six years with no previous disciplinary history on file. As per his sentence, he will not work for seven days and will not be paid during that period.

The formal discipline will remain on his file for five years.

In 2014 Peel Regional Police trained 733 officers on domestic violence. The Service also has a domestic violence unit and a coordinator for such issues at each police division. Annually, Evans says Peel Police receive 13,000 domestic violence calls.