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TORONTO — A Durham Regional Police officer has earned more than $600,000 since he was first suspended in 2008 after separate assault and use of excessive force charges.
Const. Glen Turpin has twice been convicted on criminal charges and has been convicted three times on Police Services Act charges. The most recent conviction was made in 2012, but Turpin, 46, is still suspended and earning his full paycheque while awaiting lawyers’ submissions on if he should keep his badge.
Ontario is the only province in Canada where police officers facing charges must be suspended with pay. Officers can only be suspended without pay if they’ve been convicted and imprisoned, making them unable to report to work.
Turpin was charged with assault and threatening bodily harm in 2006 after he twice grounded a prisoner inside a cell and threatened to punch the prisoner’s “teeth straight through the back of your head.”
The Durham officer was convicted on both charges and given two years probation and 120 hours of community service. Turpin pleaded guilty to a charge of discreditable conduct at a Police Services Act hearing in 2010. The criminal charges were successfully challenged and the Court of Appeal overturned the decision in 2011, forcing a new trial. He pleaded guilty at his second trial to threatening bodily harm and was giving a conditional discharge. The assault charge was dismissed.
Turpin was charged with assault a second time in 2007 for striking a drunken prisoner twice in the face while bringing him into custody.
He was acquitted for the assault charge but a Police Services Act hearing found him guilty of unlawful or unnecessary exercise of authority in 2012.
Durham police ordered an internal review of Turpin in 2007 after finding he had 26 times the complaints against him compared to his colleagues in 2006 and 23 times the amount in 2007. He had been convicted at a Police Services Act about 10 years before this review for entering a home without a warrant or permission and using force.
Despite the paid suspension, Turpin holds other employment. His LinkedIn profile lists him as Ontario operations manager for Emergency Response Institute Canada and owner of Tactical Films Consulting.