Fredericton — Faced with a growing number of officers on suspension, Fredericton Police Chief Leanne Fitch took the unusual step of divulging a top-secret initiative in order to explain the officers’ erratic behaviour of late.
At a press conference Wednesday, Fitch told reporters that the 5 officers currently suspended with pay were all part of a covert team charged with infiltrating the seedier aspects of the capital city. The operation, dubbed “Takes One to Know One,” placed certain members of the Fredericton Police Force on undercover missions posing as drunk and/or negligent drivers, shoplifters, fraudsters, etc.
“We were operating under the maxim: to be a good priest, you have to have sinned,” explained Fitch. “It seemed to follow that to catch a drunk driver, you need to drive drunk.”
The operation was so secretive, said Fitch, that the rest of the force was not told about it. After the fifth undercover officer was arrested this past weekend by a fellow officer in uniform, this time for impaired driving in a single-vehicle collision, Fitch realized she had to shut down Takes One to Know One and come clean to the public.
“These officers are suspended with pay, which I believe is fair and just, since they were only doing their jobs,” said Fitch. “The other officers who were part of Takes One are currently on paid medical leave while receiving treatment for habit-forming behaviours developed as a result of this work. They will be assimilated back into duty according to their recovery timetables.”
When asked whether there had been an increase in arrests of the types of crime they were targeting since the beginning of the initiative, Fitch replied, “Yes. Five.”