Murdock Had Questionable Behaviour Going Back Decades - Chief Says
By Robert Thomas
It was an emotional rollercoaster as the real reasons were released behind the firing of former police constable Alan Murdock.
The reasons were often shocking and graphic as one police officer described ten years of hell knowing such a corrupt man wore a police uniform and a former female communications officer described being sexually assaulted by Murdock right in the police station.
In the end it left the media asking questions about how did this all happen, why was nothing seemingly done for so long and will there be a public inquiry into the Alan Murdock affair. A process which took over a year to accomplish costing taxpayers $229,601.83.
Chief Rick Bourassa laid out the reasons and the chronology for determining Murdock was not suitable to be a police officer.
The reasons would go back decades to almost from day one of Murdock’s hiring right up to the point where he lied in yet another investigation focused on him and was immediately shown the door.
Some of the incidents were shocking and left the Moose Jaw Police Service (MJPS) going through every sexual assault file Murdock had ever been involved in.
Right up to an 1998 incindent where while off duty a young man flipped Murdock “the bird” only to have Murdock return the next day, this time in uniform, and assault the young man with the aid of pepper spray.
In 1999 he would again assault a young man with pepper spray but this time for no reason.
Chief Bourassa said there were two ways to dismiss a police officer - because of a single incident or an entire series of incidents - in the Alan Murdock case the former constable was unfit to be a police officer for a series of actions or inactions occuring over decades.
The way Murdock was dismissed was through a series of actions over time and not individual incidents where discipline was exercised.
“This is not about specific incidents but a totality of issues.”
The list of illicit and unethical conduct Murdock is accused of ranged from missing child pornography, sexually texting a 15 year old girl, assaulting citizens, sexual assault, missing evidence, entering the police evidence locker dozens of times and making off with evidence (all caught on camera), storing illicit drugs at home which were accessible and used by teens, using his uniform to get even with citizens for things that occured off duty, lying when being investigated, improper storage of his service revolver and attempting to defraud Revenue Canada with the help of an RCMP officer (the RCMP officer declined) amongst others.
Chief Bourassa is allowed to dismiss an officer if they conduct themselves “in a manner that despite remedial efforts with reasonable circumstances to make those efforts renders a member unsuitable for police service.”
At the planned hearing, which Murdock ultimately abandoned, the Chief planned to present 43 witnesses “who were going to give detailed information of on-going misconduct and instances of what they had been involved in.”
Chief Bourassa said that he became aware of Murdock’s conduct shortly after being hired as the Chief of Police in 2014.
“It began to form in 2014 after my arrival.”
“In 2003 we found memos of reported assault of a communications officer where there were no charges.”
“In 2004 there were reports he made dismissive comments to a female about her deceased father.”
“In 2011 he doesn’t exhibit evidence in a homicide.”
Murdock was investigated in 2012 for sending “flirtatious emails” to a 15 year old girl. He was not disciplined but advised about his future conduct.
“In 2012 well over 100 exhibits went missing from the building, went missing from the secured area an investigation was conucted after information was brought forward and Mr Murdock was seen on video at least 47 times coming into the building at all hours of the day and night removing exhibits and taking them home.”
A second investigation Murdock also had a “large number of exhibits stored on his home computer.”
After an investigation Murdock faced discipline on eight incidents. He received a suspension, probation and training provided on police ethics and accountability.
Constable Murray Rice
“This has been ten years for me,” said constable Murray Rice who initially turned in Murdock only to see nothing done.
Constable Rice had ten years ago reported the former constable Murdock with him being able to slip through any type of investigation and being held accountable.
“I am not standing up here speaking for the name on the front of my shirt Murray Rice I am speaking on behalf of the crest on my shoulder. The Moose Jaw Police Service, institution of policing and the requirements and oath that I took and the importance of that oath,” Cst Rice said.
“We have to learn from what we have been through here,” he said. “The public needs to learn from it as well we are going to hopefully instill that accountability and confidence in our police service.”
I didn’t feel it was dealt with properly with the management team in place. And that is not good. We need to be able to police our own police.
“What happened here...is Mr Murdock’s behaviour was enabled by previous administration. To me that is not cool.”
“The trouble I had was seeing that individual wearing a police uniform since 2010 day after day interacting with our public. Interacting with other officers and the potential of what we had to deal with. I guess it reinforces my thoughts I was right,” Rice said.
Rice said they were not simple mistakes but something much worse when Murdock failed to do a report on 100 plus files.
“That’s a decision and not a mistake.”
Communications Officer
“Alan Murdock, a police officer, a constable, a trusted member of the commuinity did in fact sexually assault me in 2003,” a former MJPS communications officer said. “Chief Terry Coleman signed off the file as a ‘concern file’.
Although her name was released MJ Independent does not print the names of sexual assault victims.
The former communications officer said her co-workers had warned her about Murdock.
“Murdock is slimy, creepy, watch yourself and stay away,” co-workers had told her.
The incident came when she was a new employee and Murdock came at a high pace towards her and then suddenly rubbed across the woman’s breasts and kept on walking.
When she said somthing about the incident Murdock wanted to have a meeting with her and was suppose to apologize for his actions - something he did not do.
“I’m sorry you would think I would do something like this…in fact he had no recollection of the incident,” she said, adding “I began to think I had done something wrong.”
She never pursued the matter futher because she did not want to rock the boat and lose her new job.
Freedom Of Information
MJ Independent even had a minor hand in the undoing of former Cst Murdock when we received a tip from a reliable source in the drug trade about missing narcotics from the police evidence locker and the now disgraced constable selling them for cash.
In 2018 MJ Independent submitted a Freedom Of Information request looking for anything lost, stolen or missing by the MJPS which while preparing FOI coordinatior Inspector Rick McKenna noticed some missing evidence while processing that request from the evidence locker and traced it to Murdock.
As media MJ Independent is not an agent of the police but were doing our own investigative report. We were looking into potential corruption in the MJPS.
“There was not the proper evidence affecting the accuracy of the FOIP request I received,” McKenna said.
McKenna would go on to investigate and discover Murdock was using the police computer system to access infomation for unauthorized personal reasons. The major privacy breach resulted in Murdock being locked out of the system in a manner where he could still do his job. He was not allowed to have other employees access the system for him.
Inaction In 2018 And Onwards
In 2018 Murdock would respond to a complaint of assault and sexual assault on a teenage girl and do nothing about it. The young woman was re-victimized because of his lack of action.
In 2019 he was found to have illicit drugs at home that were being used by kids.
“Neighbourhood children would take them and use them,” Chief Bourassa said.
Another incident centered around his service revolver when in 2019 it was discovered Murdock’s service revolver was not locked up properly in his home and it was “accessible to the children in the house at the time.”
In 2019 he turned off his in-car camera when a young female was in his police cruiser with him following an accident involving a suspected drunk driver.
In 2019 there were two videos of child pornography missing from the evidence locker attributed to Murdock.
And the final missing piece of evidence was a cellphone with sexually explicit photographs that were being shared by others. Murdock took the phone with the sexually explicit photographs and upon his firing the phone was missing.
MJPS bought the woman a new phone.
No Prisoners Attitude
With the firing of fromer Cst Murdock Chief Bourassa took an unconditional attitude towards ending the legal battle. There would be no conditional ending of the legal battle.
“There will be no payout. There will be no secrecy demand acceeded to it..there will be no conditions attached to it and it will be permanent,” Chief Bourassa said about the conditions to end the Murdock legal battle.
“He will never again be a police officer and continue with this conduct,” he said.
“I dismissed Alan Murdock as soon as I had all of the necessary requirements that would be upheld on an appeal,” Chief Bourassa said.
Despite losing his job and now in disgrace Murdock’s legal problems may not be over as under the law if there is a discovery of something which may be seen as criminal in nature the chief must submit the evidence to the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General to determine if further charges are warranted.
The Chief encouraged anyone with any information to come forward.
In the end Chief Bourassa said the MJPS is striving to be a better police force after the Murdock Affair.
“We are going to hold ourselves accountable,” he said. “We take this seriously. We are moving forward we are going to be accountable.”
MJ Independent was unable to contact former constable Alan Murdock to see if he had comment.
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