CALGARY – Calgary’s police chief says transparency and a good working relationship with the public remains a priority despite a recent communication to officers warning them against leaking information to the media.
According to Calgary Police Chief Roger Chaffin, a February communication sent to Calgary Police Service employees was not meant to stop police officers from speaking to the media but rather to stop the release of sensitive, operational documents.
“The information that we have here, that we have stewardship of, requires thoughtfulness and privacy and policy and the security of people,” Chaffin said. “And when it gets released without proper attention to detail and policy, that puts people at risk.”
The communication sparked a controversial response in support of the chief’s position from a director of the Calgary Police Association.
Paul Wozney is a Staff Sergeant with the Calgary Police Service. In 10-4 Back the Blue, the official publication for the Association, Wozney wrote “we have enough butt-holes in the media, the community, and on the defense-side of the bar taking shots at us. We don’t need our own members taking shots at each other in our own magazine.
“The amount and type of information that our own members (sworn and civilian) have spilled to the media is nothing short of a big ‘screw you’ to the Service and our members.”
In the article, Wozney cites an example of an officer who was involved in “two rather significant officer involved shootings” and wrote that when the media was tipped off to the connection, the leak “caused unnecessary stress and grief.” He goes on to write that he is not anti-media and unhappy employees should “leave the organization or join the fire department.”
Wozney has been the subject of media reports himself, after an off-duty incident in 2010. He was charged with assault and uttering threats after an incident at Cardel Place pool.
In a plea deal, Wozney pleaded guilty to an offence under what is often referred to as the “bad behaviour bylaw”. He admitted to kicking a youth at the pool and was ordered to pay a fine of $1,000 dollars.
Sean Holman, a journalism professor at Mount Royal University, told Global news this kind of order is inappropriate.
He said the media represents the public and have a right to access information.
“Journalists are the representatives of the people. They hold public institutions to account on behalf of the public,” Holman said. “So what the police chief is essentially saying here, is that the public does not have a right to find out anything that the police don’t want the public to find out and that is just bad for democracy.”
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