Dozens of members of the Calgary Police Service have been allegedly found to be in breach of a department policy which prohibits possession of, accessing or distributing non-work related sexual or tasteless material while on the job and not a single offender has received any discipline more severe than a stern conversation.

Operation XXX, an internal Calgary Police Service investigation, determined 131 members of the force, men and women ranging from constables to superintendents, were caught with inappropriate images, videos or tasteless jokes on their police issued electronic devices.

CTV Calgary has learned not one of the 131 members was suspended or terminated in connection with the findings, but all of the alleged offenders did have face-to-face conversations with a supervisor.

The issue of inappropriate material on CPS devices came to light in 2009 when an information technologist found questionable items on the internal H drive. A supervisor was notified and the service-wide investigation, dubbed Operation XXX, was launched.

Operation XXX resulted in the discovery of:

  • Over 300 videos
  • Nearly 2,000 photos
  • Approximately 500 Powerpoint slides
  • Hundreds of emails containing lewd, erotic, sexual and adult content

Representatives of the Calgary Police Service say the questionable content was not of a criminal nature, but department policy requires officers not “access, display, upload, download, view, read, transmit, circulate, save, store, distribute or possess" any inappropriate materials.

“(It’s) totally inappropriate,” said CPS spokesperson Kevin Brookwell. “Does it reflect the core values of our organization? I would say not.”

“There would be significantly more robust consequences if they were criminal in nature or if there was any kind of illegal activity going on.”

Sandy Hershcovis, a professor of human resources at the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business, says the CPS members who sent questionable material to their colleagues may be violating sexual harassment laws.

“If people are doing things like looking at porn on computer technology that is issued at work by the workplace, it's a violation of that policy and it's also often a violation of the code of ethical conduct at work,” explains Hershcovis. “If you are distributing sexual content around the organization and it could reach, you don’t know who is forwarding to whom, it could reach people who don't want to receive that material, it's a serious risk of violation of sexual harassment.”

The Calgary Police Service now audits its internal devices on a regular basis. While Operation XXX has put a significant dent in the issue, violations of the CPS policy persist.

Samuel Walker, a retired professor of criminal justice, says CPS officials should take additional measures to address the issue. Walker believes annual training and refresher courses should be set in place, given the fact senior members of the force were found to be amongst the violators.

Walker says the large number of offenders speaks to a larger problem, one of cultural acceptance

“When you have a couple of officers, you can say you have a couple of rogue cops who went off track and you don't have a department wide problem,’ explains Walker. “When you have 130, that's a lot (and) that means it really is a department wide problem. If there are supervisors involved in this, that’s even more disturbing.”

The findings of Operation XXX were not released to the public and CTV Calgary gained access to the heavily redacted documents through freedom of information requests. CPS officials say transparency is discretionary and requires the balance of ensuring the public is informed while protecting the privacy of their employees.

With files from CTV's Jamie Mauracher