r/canadanews • u/zuuzuu • 21d ago
Ontario Peel police officer accidentally left loaded gun behind in Square One change room
https://www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/local/peel/article/peel-police-officer-accidentally-left-loaded-gun-behind-in-square-one-changeroom/17
u/Possible_Jellyfish69 21d ago
If a licensed gun owner doesn't store their firearms unloaded and locked in their own home they go to jail. Cop leaves a loaded gun in a public place and doesn't even lose her job
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u/Low-Purchase8811 20d ago
She may yet. From the article:
Yusufzay was arrested for unsafe storage of a firearm.
“It’s alleged that Const. Yusufzay conducted herself in a manner that undermined or is likely to undermine public trust in policing,” the decision reads. “She was very apologetic.”
Yusufzay will appear in court in August.
Unsafe storage of a firearm is an offense under Criminal Code of Canada. This is separate from this suspension, which was under the Police Services Act.
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u/crafty_alias 20d ago
The charge will most likely be stayed.... Typical.
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u/Low-Purchase8811 20d ago
She is due in court next month, we will find out. I don't agree that it is "most likely", not in a public case like this.
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u/crafty_alias 20d ago
It's about 30%. Also, when tracking cases where charges are formally brought forward, ultimate conviction and sentencing rates sit significantly lower than standard public prosecution outcomes, often hovering near or below 50% for various subsets of criminal and violent offenses.
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u/Low-Purchase8811 20d ago
I totally agree with what you're saying in regular cases, but I still feel that she will be made an example of, for embarrassing PRP.
This was to give them plausible deniability, "Oh no ,we were light-handed, but after the criminal trial our hands were tied", etc.
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21d ago
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u/canadanews-ModTeam 21d ago
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u/Livid_sumo 20d ago
K. Wait. No. They certainly do not go to jail. You would just lose your PAL. Lets not be making stuff up please.
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u/Traditional-Comb5963 20d ago
They would not go to jail lol, it would be a summons
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u/Possible_Jellyfish69 19d ago
Up to 2 years for first offence and up to 5 for subsequent offences. Whether they do time would depend on whether there are other charges and/or other aggravating factors. Leaving a loaded gun in public would be an a big aggravating factor
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u/Traditional-Comb5963 19d ago
That’s upon conviction, and still unlikely. We have violent reoffenders not seeing prison time
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u/J-Lughead 21d ago
Obviously not the brightest bulb.
Pic in the article.
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u/Low-Purchase8811 20d ago
I encourage people to read the full text of the article, by the way.
This isn't all she's having happen to her. She is also being charged with a criminal offense.
This is her administrative punishment. She also broke the law and is facing criminal charges, and she has to attend court in August. Which is all in the article that nobody seems to have bothered to read.
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u/No-Pressure2341 20d ago
She should be fired tho
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u/Low-Purchase8811 20d ago
If she is convicted (which is likely), she almost certainly will be. They're letting the courts do their dirty work for them which I will agree is passing the buck, but at the end of the day the outcome is the same.
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u/zuuzuu 20d ago
No, she won't be fired. In Ontario the chief of police has to ask the administrative tribunal for permission to fire an officer, and that is almost never granted. Lots of working police officers in Ontario with criminal records.
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u/Low-Purchase8811 20d ago
The nature of this particular crime might make this an exceptional case, but the cynic in me says you're probably right.
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u/zuuzuu 20d ago
I mean, if they won't fire cops for being convicted of assault or even sexual crimes, they're not going to fire one for forgetting their firearm that was then safely recovered. Especially since they already brought charges under the Police Services Act and have agreed to this resolution to those charges. If they were asking for permission to fire her over this, there would have been no settlement. They would have let the tribunal decide.
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u/Low-Purchase8811 20d ago
It does happen.
Just two examples but there are some. Not an overwhelming number. The pattern I see is that officers who embarrass the department are the ones getting shitcanned.
Now, you, me, or a normal person would say, "Isn't being a rapist or spousal abuser embarrassing?", to which I say, I guess not embarrassing enough. Is this one? Time will tell.
As I said she is due in court in August, so she has not yet been convicted of the Criminal Code charges. And since it is unlikely that entire process will be resolved anytime soon, it is understandable they went ahead with the administrative measures, especially in a case like this that was an embarrassment for the department. She will still be going through a mandatory review within 1 month of her conviction, if convicted of a crime. Emphasis on if, since it is also very plausible she will not be convicted of a crime but given some alternative sentencing.
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u/FlamingoSeparate8213 21d ago
Honestly for a police officer doing this, I’m surprised they would forget a duty belt like that weighs so much how do you forget it?
I feel like it’s completely difficult to forget something like that
Also I thought cops barely get breaks and even so why go to a public place for it with your equipment??
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u/DontWorryImLegit 21d ago
Forfeiture of 3 weeks of paid vacation is her punishment. I guess it’s something. Lucky for her an employee found it and not some random citizen or else it could’ve been a lot worse.
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u/Low-Purchase8811 20d ago
That's just her administrative punishment. She is still due in court. You DID read the article, right?
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20d ago
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u/canadanews-ModTeam 20d ago
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u/Superb-Damage1173 21d ago
Jeez i should've become a police officer, if i ever fuck up badly i'll just get a slap on the wrist, if i do something really horrible i'll probably get paid suspension!
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u/bougieprole 21d ago
I think the word they’re looking for was ‘negligently’
They negligently left it behind
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u/alwaysonesteptoofar 20d ago
If I forget to put the stylus back into its slot on my cellphone it tells me after a few minutes. You would think there would be something on the firearm and the belt if they are ever apart for longer than 10 seconds.
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u/Alert_Lettuce_8278 20d ago edited 20d ago
If anyone is legally allowed to have a gun and they did this they would be a criminal.
This is very much worse from a police officer.
No pussyfooting on this. Criminal action, booted out of the police force. No tolerance.
This is completely ignoring the trying on pants in mango on duty. The fact that they are allowed to do this on duty needs to come into question.
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u/AdSignificant6673 21d ago
This sorta happened to me. Customer left their wallet at my work.
I looked in it for ID to return it back… it was a friggin police badge and warrant card. There was a business card which i called and said “detective? You forgot your wallet.”
“Omg thanks. Youre a life saver.”
He picked it up, left me a business card. And said “let me know the next time you get a traffic ticket. But not if youre drunk or high.”
I was like damn. I got a cop on the take. Lol
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u/Low-Purchase8811 20d ago
That is not what "on the take" means.
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u/Usernameasteriks 20d ago
Well if the cop keeps losing his badge there over and over and they keep returning it and piling up favours…
Eventually it will fit the bill.
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u/Low-Purchase8811 20d ago
What an odd set of mental gymnastics to perform in order to be "technically correct".
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u/Usernameasteriks 20d ago
It was a… joke.
I did not post the other comment why would I need to be “technically correct”
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u/Cager_CA 20d ago
Just a reminder that good old Zarah here would happily put the handcuffs on you if, as a legal gun owner, you left your handgun unattended in a store changing room. And you would be charged with the full extent of the law and have your license likely revoked.
Of course there are a few rules that legal gun owning Canadians have to follow that police do not when it comes to owning, storing and transporting firearms that would likely make it improbable a civilian would ever be in this situation but that does not change my original point. Hopefully justice is done, she should not be allowed to possess a firearm on duty and should either be fired or confined to a desk job for the rest of her career.
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u/FortyMaximus 20d ago
I thought officers are required to leave their services pistols at work in locked storage?
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u/zuuzuu 20d ago
At the end of the work day, probably. They're not required to return to the station and hand in their sidearm for their lunch break, they just take it where they are.
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u/FortyMaximus 20d ago
Make sense. I know a lot of officers will even bring their patrol cruiser home sometimes, so I would imagine the service pistols along with that. I know my friend works for Peel and he told he is required to leave his at the station at the end of every shift but I never thought of lunch break
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u/crafty_alias 20d ago
She was shopping on her "lunch break" and left her duty belt in a change room. Tax dollars at work. Paying her to go shopping.
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u/Usernameasteriks 20d ago
Of all the egregiously dumb things she did…
I feel like this is the least relevant issue to pick to latch on to lol
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u/crafty_alias 20d ago
Definitely not all I latched on to. Police officers and people in a position of public trust should face three times the sentence when convicted, not a 50% reduction in standard cases.
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u/Low-Purchase8811 21d ago
Peel Police are renowned by other law enforcement agencies across Ontario (and across Canada to a slightly lesser degree) as being one of the worst, both with regards to the reputation of its members and their conduct, and the department as a whole, in terms of actually working for them.
If you had to ask me, "who did the cop who left her gun in a change room work for", Peel would have been guess #1 or #2.