The Vancouver Police Department says it is committed to implementing eight recommendations from a coroner's inquest related to the suicide of one of its constables — Nicole Chan, who died in 2019 while on stress leave from her job.
In January of this year, a coroner's jury heard that Chan's suicide stemmed from mental health issues associated with relationships with two male co-workers, including then-Sgt. David Van Patten, who "manipulated or coerced" her into having sex.
Chan, 30, died on Jan. 27, 2019, after committing suicide in her Olympic Village apartment.
The jury made 12 recommendations: one addressed to the Minister of Health, three to the Vancouver General Hospital access and assessment centre, and eight to Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer.
A report that goes before the Vancouver Police Board Thursday provided a response to the recommendations related to the department, including the cost of implementing them: $433,000 to $543,000 total.
Eight recommendations from coroner's jury
The jury's recommendations to Palmer were:
• Mandatory psychological clinical interviews should be a part of every potential police officer's recruitment process, whereby the psychologist's recommendations are considered.
• Ensure respectful workplace training is mandatory, rigorous, in-person and on a regular basis for all ranks of police officers.
• Training specific to promotions should include formal administrative and management training.
• Have a human resource or peer support case representative in regular contact with all employees with mental health issues, and the family and/or support circle, if permitted by the employee, to establish and build a relationship and provide continuity of care.
• Annual psychological check-ins with a psychologist should be mandatory for all police officers.
• The respectful workplace policy should recognize rumours and gossip as an example of unprofessional behaviour.
• Police officers in the human resources department should receive specific training relative to the duties of a human resources professional.
• Ensure each section within the human resources department works interdependently rather than independently of each other.
'Respectful workplace' training
The report going before the police board outlines training and protocols currently in place. Those measures are included in a detailed response to the recommendations. The VPD summarized its commitment to implementing each of them in a closing statement that read:
"The VPD takes its responsibilities as an employer very seriously and will ensure that best practices are implemented for respectful workplace training and policies; that interdependent [human resources] processes are within a continuum of care and within case management processes; that robust psychological screening be applied during the recruiting stage; and that access to annual psychological check-ins continue throughout the career of sworn officers."
The report says "respectful workplace e-learning" will be delivered to all patrol teams in the fall of 2023 and can be subsequently delivered to all staff at the VPD. This training includes "highlighting rumours and gossip" as an example of unprofessional behaviour, the report said.
"In addition, the VPD could expand in-person respectful workplace training to incoming recruits and experienced officers, and as part of the acting supervisor program," the report said. "This in-person training could be delivered by an external service provider and would result in associated costs."
Most recently, the report added, all sworn officers and civilian managers in the VPD's "senior leadership team" are currently receiving 16 hours of training, which began in January and will end this month.
The coroner's jury heard Chan was concerned about how her complaint related to the officers was being handled at the department's human resources section, where Van Patten worked.
Workplace rumours
The jury also heard from Sgt. Corey Bech, who described himself as a friend and mentor to Chan. He said he spoke with her the night before she died of suicide and that she was anxious about workplace rumours.
"It got so bad that she couldn't even, she didn't want to be around members in uniform, or members at all towards the end of her life," he said. "She had zero contact with anybody from the VPD, other than myself, at the end."
Glacier Media reported in September 2019 that at least 51 police officers and 18 civilian staff employed at the department say they were the subject of workplace harassment at some point between 2017 and 2018.
The harassment identified was primarily related to race, gender, ancestry and sexual harassment, according to a survey completed in 2018 by VPD officers and staff.
Glacier Media obtained the "2018 Employee Job Satisfaction Survey Results" report via a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
The incidents of harassment were possibly higher because the results were based on responses from 551 of 1,811 employees, which was roughly 30 per cent of the total staff working at the department.
Chan was a jail guard before becoming a cop
Chan began her career with the department as an auxiliary VPD jail guard in 2008 and became a full-time guard in 2009 before being sworn in as a constable in September 2011.
She graduated from the police academy in May 2012 and subsequently worked in the operations division. The coroner's jury heard she was in the hospital the day before she died after being apprehended under the Mental Health Act.
Chan's sister, Jennifer, visited Nicole in hospital. She told the jury her sister struggled with anxiety and depression after complaining to Palmer in 2017 about inappropriate relationships with two senior officers.
"She really wanted to get back to work and get healthy again, into a mental state where she could go back to work," Chan told the inquest.
'A very sad and tragic situation'
In January, Glacier Media spoke to Palmer during the inquest and asked him what the department was doing to prevent another officer from taking their own life. His response, in full, was:
"The death of Nicole Chan is a tragedy. It was heartbreaking. It was something that impacted our whole department. Very, very sad tragedy. It's something that, of course, we never want to see again. When a person dies by suicide, it's a very sad and tragic situation. So my heart always goes out to her whole family and her friends.
"I'm not going to get into specifics about that particular file because there is an ongoing inquest. But I will say that we do have good policy in place. We do have training. We do have an inclusive workplace committee. We have civilian professionals in human resources and legal counsel and people reviewing our policy and police board oversight.
"We have made changes over the years on our policy to make sure it does protect people. Having a respectful workplace is of paramount importance.
"The one thing I'll just say is that you can have all the policy in the world, in any organization, but human beings are still human beings. And you never know how individuals are going to act under given circumstances. You can policy the heck out of the place, but we still have to rely on people to abide by policy and give them proper training. But individuals may stray from that, and sometimes, that's hard to anticipate."
If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, call 1-800-784-2433 (1-800-SUICIDE) or contact your local crisis centre.
With files from Canadian Press
