An anonymous letter from a Lowly Patrol Member addressed to police union president Ralph Kaiser is circulating among Vancouver Police Department (VPD) members in which, the member constable, is making numerous accusations of abuse and unfairness against top VPD brass, saying nepotism, unfairness and systemic racism is rampant in the force and that no one at the top is interested in doing anything about it.
By PD Raj – Senior Writer DESIBUZZCanada
VANCOUVER – An anonymous letter from a Lowly Patrol Member addressed to police union president Ralph Kaiser is circulating among Vancouver Police Department (VPD) members in which, the member constable, is making numerous accusations of abuse and unfairness against top VPD brass, saying nepotism, unfairness and systemic racism is rampant in the force and that no one at the top is interested in doing anything about it.
“If we had a poll to identify incompetent leaders, I bet you there would be a large batch of runaway winners. That’s a problem if everyone knows it. This starts from the top of the food chain in HR the deputy. He has single handedly appointed all of his little soldiers at every level of that division. If you look at each of them, they have been given multiple “temp” boxes for significant periods of time. Who else has access to these temp boxes? How are people magically promoted out of them? What other division has this many?,” writes Lowly Patrol Member in a letter addressed to Kaiser, which DESIBUZZCanada obtained and can be read in its entirety below.
DESIBUZZCanada reached out to VPD media spokesperson Sergeant Steve Addison for a comment on the letter on Friday but as of Saturday afternoon, we did not hear back.
The new mayor-elect Ken Sim, who with his ABC team, will control Vancouver and has promised 100 new police officers and 100 mental health nurses to deal with out of control crime and homeless camp violence. But the Lowly Patrol Member argues that VPD first need to deal with internal problems that is causing huge problems with VPD officers’ morale and ability to do their jobs.
Here is the full letter from Lowly Patrol Member of the VPD:
Dear Ralph,
I have contemplated sending this letter for some time. I have sat back and watched what has gone on within this department. I am just so disappointed in the leadership at all levels within the union and the executive. What made me write this now is because of the election. This election was favourable for us in many ways. But, I don’t want this to be an opportunity for you and others to conveniently ignore how much our department has been run in to the ground.
First, all of our competitions and promotional promises have some level of a “fix”. There is always a “fix”. We have seen some of the most widely known and Incompetent leaders promoted. They now try and lead us. It’s not working. If they sucked as constables, they will suck at every rank above that. Heck the department now has them as inspectors leading large groups of staff. It’s actually embarrassing. If we had a poll to identify incompetent leaders, I bet you there would be a large batch of runaway winners. That’s a problem if everyone knows it. This starts from the top of the food chain in HR the deputy. He has single handedly appointed all of his little soldiers at every level of that division. If you look at each of them, they have been given multiple “temp” boxes for significant periods of time. Who else has access to these temp boxes? How are people magically promoted out of them? What other division has this many? Someone pointed out a stat that two of his servants have been promoted to inspector and superintendent and combined had worked in a maximum of one job in their career they had applied for (other than promotion). How is that possible? As a union president you have sat back and watched this. The person in charge of PSS, has been suspending people like an Oprah Winfrey show, but was the same person bullying and harassing his team including females. I heard a story that you, Ralph would laugh during staff sergeant competitions and say things like “they will pick who they want anyways”. That is a unionized competition Ralph. You have known for years that certain executive just provide answers to promotional interview questions to their chosen ones, and leave everyone else hanging. You have done nothing. In one case, someone was busted with the answers to the only questions. Or provided during a sgts interview and HR quashed it. Why? Because of who it implicated (someone in that chain). Did you not see what happened in Toronto over this? HR moved people to HR in to full time jobs without a posting? The fix was in for the latest recruiting sergeant job. We see all of this. How don’t you??! Do you ever care?
We have had no staffing in BET for ages. No one cares about us. They say our core values are ICARE, the only thing the department exec and Hr care about are themselves. We have members going through significant life challenges related to work related events. Does anyone check in? We had a member stabbed on duty and when the case went to court? No one showed up. No one cares. We have people waiting months and months for transfers. No one cares. I went up to gravely one day on shift. I kid you not, that place was empty mid day . None of these invest units have bodies. So this then makes us in patrol have to take on files that we don’t have time for. And guess who wears it in a neglect of duty investigation? My deputy? The union president? Nope. Us. All of us patrol folks. We have people off on wcb because of related stress and our departments ignore them like a disease. No one cares. Good people have been hurt because of their job, but don’t receive any contact from the vpd over months and months. Just because the VPD’s definition of hurt doesn’t quite match what would be excepted elsewhere. These people are treated as if they are the problem.
Also Ralph quit telling people that their police act investigations will be just fine and nothing will happen. No one wants to come to you anymore for their complaints. These keep getting substantiated. Wake up please.
We hate our work environments, we have no bodies, no support. When we apply for jobs, we find out the competitions are rigged. We apply for promotion, the department manages to pick their own (even if they have criminal records). We get hurt or go through trauma, no one cares. Now a new mayor comes in and this is all going to change? Not a chance. We had one of the best chiefs in the country. He has sat back and allowed at least one or more DCC’s to destroy this department. So that is on the chief. You are our paid voice. It is your job to keep them in line and protect us. You have not done it. You are in bed with them. Your best friend in management is actively defending law suits for the vpd that your union members have filed. How is that not a conflict of interest? You directly okay decisions without your board. Why? Because we have asked your board about many things they didn’t not know about. You cannot be on the VPD’s payroll. Directly or indirectly. But you are.
At this point, I would rather go write tickets for transit. I would rather drive in circles in west van. Heck, I would rather venture in to the city of crazy mayors in surrey at this point. They at least care about their people. Vpd tells us they are a national leader. It’s simply not true. Other agencies in our region would be more than happy to look after us.
The department has done a great job convincing the public that the city is not safe. But the department and the union has failed to provide us with safe and healthy work environments. The VPU who is supposed to be a leader in the province and country in terms of collective bargaining is now relying on basically “me too’s” from places like delta , and surrey for improved benefits like pay , maternity and paternity leave . We are not better off than the RCMP in terms of work environments.
We all filled out an employee survey a while ago. Where are the results? The actual ones and not the vetted ones? Have you read through the results since it is in the unions best interest to see how their members are feeling? Rumours have it the department threw it in the garbage because of references to Nepotism, unfairness, systemic racism, and people just being angry. We may not have all of those things, but why can’t we address them together. I signed up to police in vancouver, not in Moscow. This feels like authoritarian type of stuff. Also the workplace inclusive committee is a load of garbage designed to check a box. Nothing changes.
I really think this department needs a change of its entire leadership. I feel the union needs a change as well. The next person in line isn’t going to help us any more than you have. If the mayor turns around and gives us more bodies, it will just be more bodies that this department will hurt. Its means more money and bodies to mismanage.
So as we celebrate this huge win in the election, please do not ignore the actual issues. We need new leaders to protect us and support us. And yes ralph, we do have people at the vpd who suffer from ED, so “boner pills” is not a laughing matter in a membership wide meeting . Oh ya , we need more professionalism in this place as well .
I realize you will defend this letter with more denials and future promises. I know this will cause some exec leaders in the vpd to try and search for who wrote this. I know this department has a history of alienating Anyone who calls them out. But this is how your people feel. We have options to go work elsewhere and we will. We want to work for good leaders, not whatever politician of the day that will be gone in 4 years.
Sincerely ,
Your lowly Patrol Member
