Pubdate: Thu, 24 Sep 2015
Source: Record, The (Kitchener, CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 Metroland Media Group Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.therecord.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/225
Author: Liz Monteiro
Page: A1

CHIEF WANTS DISGRACED OFFICER FIRED

Local Police Seek 'The Termination and Dismissal' Of Andrew Robson 
After Court Appeal Is Tossed Out

WATERLOO REGION - A disgraced officer who was sentenced for stealing 
drugs will face a disciplinary hearing, and the police service wants him fired.

"It is our intent to direct a police act hearing and it is our 
position from the onset to seek the termination and dismissal of 
Andrew Robson," Waterloo Regional Police Chief Bryan Larkin said Wednesday.

Ontario's highest court threw out Const. Andrew Robson's appeal to 
reverse his criminal conviction and sentence, and now he will have to 
face a disciplinary hearing.

"The Ontario Court of Appeal sent a very strong message that police 
services have the ability and must root out those who do not uphold 
the oath of office," said Larkin, who had members of the service in 
attendance at the Ontario Court of Appeal decision on Friday.

Larkin said he expects a disciplinary hearing to be scheduled within 
90 days with a hearing officer from another service. A local meeting 
will be held next week with the policing standards branch and the 
service's legal team to determine a date.

"We want to expedite this. This has been going on for some time," he said.

"The criminal allegations are, in our view, significant and serious. 
They bring into disrepute the administration of justice," he said. 
"It is also very important for us to continue to build confidence and 
trust in policing," Larkin said.

Robson, 33, an eight-year member of the local police service, spent 
well over two years suspended with pay following his arrest in the 
fall of 2010.

He was caught in an on-the-job sting pocketing marijuana and then 
subsequently convicted of theft and drug possession.

Robson was taken off the police payroll in 2013 after he was 
technically sentenced to time in custody - 30 days of house arrest.

Robson also received 30 days with a nightly curfew, 120 hours of 
community service and a year of probation.

Officers given custody for crimes are almost always fired when 
disciplined under the Police Services Act.

Robson then appealed his conviction and sentence. He lost the 
Superior Court of Appeal last year, and the Ontario Court of Appeal 
said it did not accept that police improperly entrapped Robson.

Police targeted Robson after getting information from a colleague 
that he and other patrol officers at the Cambridge detachment were 
smoking marijuana like "fiends."

An undercover officer posed as a distraught mother who had caught her 
son with four ounces of marijuana.

When she gave it to Robson for disposal while he was working, he only 
turned in half of it and kept the rest for himself.

The stolen marijuana was still in an evidence bag in the knapsack 
when police arrested him on the way home from his shift.

At his criminal trial, Robson testified that the stress of the job 
and several traumatic events led to drug and alcohol addictions.
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