Calgary police finish review on Sean Chu case, shows errors were made

The Calgary Police Commission have finished reviewing the 1997 investigation on Ward 4 councillor Sean Chu, which stemmed from allegations of sexual misconduct involving a teenage girl.

The review, made public Thursday, found that errors were made, and the complaint was not properly followed during the internal investigation.

This happened mostly around the time a disciplinary investigation was completed when the youth reported she was sexually assaulted by Chu.

While the errors had the potential to impact the outcome of the case, the police commission says it does not appear that was the case as an internal investigation and disciplinary hearing did eventually happen.

According to the report, police admit that errors may have created delays and mistrust in the process.

The commission did not review the criminal investigation, the decision not to lay criminal charges, or former Councilor Chu’s fitness for public office, as the commission does not have the legal authority.

“We do not have the legal ability to go back and reopen this case, but we wanted to make sure any failings in the process back then are not continuing today,” said Commission Chair Shawn Cornett. “A teenage girl came to the Service with serious allegations about an officer and the Service did not provide her with the compassionate support she needed to navigate a complex and intimidating process. It was not okay then and it would not be okay now.”

RELATED STORIES:

• Sean Chu allegations involving a minor treated seriously, CPS says of 1997 investigation

• Calgary councillor Chu used ‘police appeal’ in case involving minor: reports

The goal of the review was to determine whether the service followed its own policies, and whether and policy gaps existed and still exist today.

The complaints made by the then 16-year-old girl were treated as an internal investigation, rather than a public complaint.

According to the report, while the Police Act does not differentiate between an external (or public) complaint and an internal (initiated by the police chief) complaint, the reporting requirements are different.

All complaints trigger a requirement in the Police Act to provide the complainant with a report every 45 days with progress on the complaint. Police say this is to reassure the complainant that progress is being made.

Police say that better communication could have prevented issues from getting worse. Had the matter been treated as a public complaint, the complainant would have been free to receive regular updates on the case.

“We are satisfied that if similar allegations came in today, they would be handled quite differently,” said Cornett.

“But we also recognize that this finding does little to address the years of hurt and frustration experienced by a person in our community who just wanted accountability for something that happened to her as a teenager.”

Police has also established processes for tracking internal investigations, and they say that disciplinary investigations now occur in addition to criminal investigations when an officer is accused of a crime.

The police website has made more information available to people on how the complaint process works.