A former school coach who tried to land jobs at the Vancouver jail and Metro Vancouver’s emergency dispatch centre has lost a battle with police to remove what he says is incorrect information from databases about him concerning sexual fantasies with young girls.
The Vancouver Police Board unanimously dismissed the man’s complaint Feb. 25 after reviewing a police report that outlined “extremely disconcerting” details about the man’s “sexual thoughts, fantasies and arousal experiences” with girls as young as seven years old.
The man, whose name has not been disclosed, revealed the information to a polygraphist during a recorded interview in September 2012 for a job at the Vancouver jail. The Courier has chosen not to publish details of the man’s admissions to police because of their content.
The man claims what he told the polygraphist was all a misunderstanding, according to a written complaint he filed in October 2015 with the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner.
“During this question period, I answered a question thinking the definition of ‘sexual arousal’ was the same as ‘physical arousal’ and my answer to this question raised some alarms, which led to the termination of volunteering in two places, the termination of my employment application and an order that required me to stay off school properties for one year,” he wrote. “I am certain that if I had answered the question with the correct definition in mind that none of this would have occurred. I was also not told that it would also prevent me from gaining any employment in any area that required security clearance.”
The man has supervised young girls as a school coach and summer camp coordinator. The VPD didn’t disclose the school or camp but said the man is no longer a volunteer and is prohibited from being on school property.
The department’s sex crimes unit interviewed the man and determined he posed a risk to young children and should not be working with them. Police said he does not have a criminal record and is not the subject of an investigation.
The information the man provided to police is stored in a B.C.-wide police database often referred to as PRIME, or Police Records Information Management Environment.
Police encouraged the man to see a psychologist, which he did. That psychologist concluded in a report that “although he endorses some experiences that, in some instances, may be considered as consistent with sexual deviance, when considered in full context [i.e., the circumstances in which they occurred], there is nothing to indicate concern or risk.”
The VPD said it couldn’t confirm what information the man provided to the psychologist. That led the VPD to have the RCMP’s Behavioural Sciences Group conduct a risk assessment on the man’s statements to the VPD polygraphist.
“[The RCMP’s] final risk assessment report would go a long way to determining what, if anything, should be revised in VPD databases,” the police report said. “Although the VPD is awaiting the final written report, initial concerns have been expressed that appear to support the VPD position that his behaviour is concerning.”
In July 2014, the man was turned down for a job at the Emergency Communications for British Columbia Incorporated dispatch centre. He said it was because he was unable to get enhanced security clearance.
“The most frustrating part of this whole situation is that I have not been able to explain my stance and I have not been given any appeal processes,” the man concluded in his complaint. “I believe this entire ordeal has been placed upon me unfairly and has probably violated many of the legal rights listed in the Canadian Charter of Rights.”
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