Regional police committing to being transparent in Ontario corruption case

In the last decade, Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) said it has had no known incidents involving its officers.

This comes after the force committed to fully participating in the province-wide independent police corruption probe, emphasizing how it has nothing to hide.

In a statement to 570 NewsRadio, WRPS Director of Communications, Cherri Greeno said, “There have been no known incidents involving access to police databases for corrupt or criminal purposes.”

The statement went on to say, “We want to reassure the community that safeguarding personal information and maintaining transparency and accountability within our organization is of the utmost importance.”

On Feb. 9, Inspector General of Policing of Ontario, Ryan Teschner, announced the probe; the following day, WRPS announced it would fully participate.

This all stems from the arrest of seven Toronto police officers and one retired officer following an investigation that began last June.

Investigators uncovered an alleged plot to murder a member of corrections management working at an Ontario Correctional institution. As the investigation progressed, it was revealed that one of the accused had accessed a police database for alleged criminal purposes.

WRPS said in the statement, “WRPS has strict policies and procedures surrounding the access to and the use of police databases. All databases have detailed audit logs, access controls, and access flags surrounding sensitive information.” It adds, “we also conduct regular audits of key police databases to ensure compliance.”

There has been no timeline provided for the independent probe.