The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC) released details Tuesday that quelled rumours that Mayor Ken Sim was being investigated for allegedly being impaired while driving during an incident in January 2023.
Sim has denied the incident ever happened and called Monday for the release of an investigation report to support his position and publicly show that he was not stopped for drinking and driving.
He also wanted the report released to show that the Vancouver Police Department did not “cover up” any investigation, which was part of the rumour and only discredited the force, the mayor said.
Deputy Police Complaint Commissioner Andrea Spindler said in an email to BIV that the OPCC will not publicly release the full report, and has communicated that decision to Sim. The mayor has received a redacted version of the report.
Instead, the police complaint commissioner’s office provided “limited details” that indicate the investigation was related to a “purported traffic stop.” Police officers were being investigated for alleged misconduct, not Sim.
“For clarity, the OPCC’s jurisdiction is limited to that of municipal police in British Columbia,” Spindler said. “As such, the scope of the investigation under the Police Act focused on the conduct of Vancouver police officers, not the mayor’s.”
There is no mention about Sim being allegedly impaired, the date of the incident, where in Vancouver the alleged incident occurred or whether police actually stopped the mayor in a vehicle.
Abbotsford police chief
An investigation was launched by the OPCC at the request of the Vancouver Police Department. The commissioner assigned the RCMP to conduct an investigation, which was reviewed by Abbotsford Police Chief Colin Watson.
Watson determined the allegations were unsubstantiated, meaning they were not proven.
“Specifically, Chief Watson found that the investigation ‘revealed no objective evidence of an interaction between members of VPD and Mayor Sim’ relevant to the allegations of misconduct and considered the allegations to be baseless,’” Spindler said.
The investigation concluded there was no evidence that Sim was stopped “in the manner alleged;” the details released by the OPCC don’t explain the manner in which Sim was allegedly stopped.
The investigation revealed that police searched a licence plate associated with Sim.
Watson determined the officers were “performing ordinary policing duties at the time of [those] queries.”
'No further action'
The OPCC reviewed the outcome and “was satisfied that the investigation thoroughly examined the allegations of police misconduct. The OPCC determined that the decision of Chief Constable Watson was not incorrect and concluded that no further action was required.”
Sim told BIV Tuesday that he was never interviewed by investigators.
“Any allegation that I was driving under the influence is an outright lie,” he said. “All this stuff was fabricated. That incident never happened.”
The police complaint commissioner operates independently of government and police, and may accept complaints from the public or independently order investigations into allegations of police misconduct.
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