After a week like the Transit Police just had, you have to ask the question: who is hiring these people?

First there was Ken Jansen, who got his job back after lying about tasering a senior citizen. Then there are Bruce Shipley and Alfred Wong, who appeared in court on assault, mischief and breach of trust charges. And then there is Tabatha “Tabytha Mercedes” Swadron, a constable who spends her free time on reality TV and posting kinky dominatrix photos of herself.

Helluva force you have there, Transit Police. Let’s break these situations down, one-by-one.

Jansen’s case is especially distasteful. In 2010, Jansen was involved in an incident at Surrey Memorial Hospital (long way from any SkyTrain line!) which ended in an RCMP officer tasering an elderly man. Jansen was suspended with pay in September 2010, until he was finally dismissed in June 2013 when the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner found he had lied about the incident. He was originally charged with assault, but those charges were stayed because the case took too long to get to court. 

Jansen appealed the firing, and somehow convinced adjudicator Carole Lazar to reverse the termination, handing out a 70-day suspension and reduction in rank instead.

Having talked to a few labour adjudicators since the decision, I have yet to find one who isn’t scratching their head over this decision. Among their comments:

• Jansen lied five times to his employer – he was suspended 14 days for each lie, adding up to the 70 day total.
• Despite the seriousness of this deceit, she chose not to fire him.
• How can the force (or taxpayers, for that matter) have any trust in him now? An employer must be able to trust an employee’s judgment.
• How could this individual be called to testify in other court proceedings (as is often the role of a police officer) when they have been deceitful in the past?
• Even if the adjudicator felt the firing was wrong, the usual course of action is to order a payout – it is very rare to bring them back into the organization. 

Shipley and Wong were in provincial court last week as the Crown laid out their case against them. CTV reports:

Two Transit Police officers were charged with fabricating evidence after authorities found an internal report on a takedown at Granville Station had been altered, B.C. provincial court heard today.

No one would have found the changes to the report into the takedown of 27-year-old Jordan Dyck -- which was caught on video by a bystander -- but a copy of the original report survived with the police complaints commissioner.

"There are discrepancies which have resulted in allegations of deceit [against Transit Police officers Bruce Shipley and Alfred Wong]," says a letter from Transit Police Staff Sgt. Doug Fisher to Crown counsel, which was read into the record.

An alleged assault by Transit Police officers is captured in this YouTube video.

"These discrepancies are not supported by the evidence and describe events that did not occur in the video."

Wong and Shipley are charged with assault, fabricating reports, statements and photographs, and causing the Transit Police to enter into an investigation by making false statements.

The Swadron story is still developing, but given the fact sexy photos are involved, you can bet the media will be all over it. Swadron apparently runs the Transit Police Twitter account which, once upon a time, was shut down after a series of bizarre tweets including:

• “OMG, you are in a hospital. You should be. Really life on transit is not like you portray.”
• “Its best to use AH against AH.”
• “U r truly a confused person.”
• “Oh, okay now we see your true colours, you just hate all police. You should be able to do what you want, when you want.”

The cops blamed a “hacker” for those bizarre tweets, but no hacker was ever found or charged – odd for a police department. But back to Swadron. From the Province:

A transit cop who allegedly modelled in kinky dominatrix gear could get spanked for “conduct unbecoming” in a Police Act investigation.

Const. Tabatha Swadron recently returned to a desk job after about a year of unpaid leave that was taken for personal reasons, transit police spokeswoman Anne Drennan confirmed.

According to information and racy photos obtained by The Province, Swadron has been modelling lingerie, competing in bikini competitions and embarking on a reality TV career in her time away from work.

Alleged images of Swadron include kinky dominatrix poses, in which a partially masked model named “Tabytha Mercedes” swings and bites on a black leather whip, while prowling in a tight cat-woman suit.

Other photos show Mercedes hefting barbells while clad in purple lingerie, and posing like a superhero in flight, with cleavage bursting below a black cape.

Drennan said that while Swadron was on an unpaid leave and free to pursue personal interests, the organization has a responsibility to make sure behaviour is suitable for an officer.

“It is up to us to make sure that any activities (officers) are involved in do not involve conduct unbecoming,” Drennan said. “And for that reason, there is now a review which will take place.”

These four are just the latest in a long line of Transit Police shenanigans. Who could forget the cop who couldn’t count explosives, leaving one on a commercial jetliner? Or the one charged with assault causing bodily harm after a bar fight with another cop?

We’ve been saying it for years now: time to get rid of the Transit Police.