Firing Police Officer for Urinating on Colleague Was Reasonable

Police officers were at a training course. At night, they went drinking. One officer got very drunk and decided to wake up the sleeping officers. When one officer refused to get out of bed, the drunk officer urinated on him. For this and related behaviour toward the co-worker that night, the officer was charged with disreputable conduct, found guilty and fired. He appealed. The Law Enforcement Review Board ruled that the finding that dismissal was an appropriate penalty was reasonable. The officer’s actions were intended to degrade and dehumanize the other officer. And urinating on another person was ‘disgusting and unacceptable conduct’ on anyone’s part. In short, based on this conduct, he wasn’t fit to continue to hold the public office of police officer [Furlong v. Chief of Police, [2013] CanLII 48817 (AB LERB), July 24, 2013].