‘Procedural Call’ Scheduled In Porter Case

A teleconference call is set for Thursday in the arbitration matter involving a suspended Kennebecasis regional police officer.

The New Brunswick Police Commission confirmed a “brief procedural call” will take place Thursday afternoon in the case involving Insp. Jeff Porter.

“If there is to be an in-person hearing scheduled it will be posted on our website,” Jennifer Smith, executive director of the commission, said in an email Wednesday.

But the proceedings could be complicated by the fact Porter plans to retire by the end of 2020.

Under the Police Act, the commission no longer has authority over an officer once they leave the force.

Smith previously told our newsroom that the jurisdiction of the complaint has changed hands since it is now in arbitration.

“When a complaint is referred to arbitration, the arbitrator has jurisdiction over it,” said Smith. “It will be up to the arbitrator to determine whether that jurisdiction is lost if an officer retires.”

Suspended With Pay For More Than Four Years

Porter has been suspended with pay since June 2016 after a complaint was filed by a female civilian employee of the force. The complainant, according to a February 2020 court ruling related to the matter, detailed “various incidents of inappropriate conduct by the applicant against the complainant.”

An investigative report presented to the police commission in June 2018 identified 16 specific allegations of misconduct by Porter.

The commission scheduled a settlement conference in September 2018, but after the parties failed to reach an agreement, an arbitration hearing was launched the following month.

Porter sought a judicial review of the case, arguing he was not served with a notice of settlement conference within the six-month time limit.

But a Court of Queen’s Bench judge declined the judicial review in a decision released in February, saying Porter “failed to establish any exceptional circumstances that would justify judicial intervention before the administrative process has been completed.”

Our newsroom was the first to report in November that the ongoing matter involving Porter has cost taxpayers in Quispamsis and Rothesay more than $1 million so far.

The figure was included in a joint letter sent to the premier by the two councils calling for changes to the province’s Police Act to speed up the resolution of personnel matters.