In this wrongful dismissal action we were lawyers for a senior vancouver police inspector who had invented the investigative tool of Geographic Profiling for making efficient use of police resources in serial murder cases.
The important employment law case received some interest in the media:
Vancouver Province, October 18, 2001
Vancouver Sun, October 24, 2001
Vancouver Province, October 29, 2001
Vancouver Sun, November 5, 2001
A number of important findings were made by the trial judge consistent with Dr. Rossmo’s evidence that he had been shut out of an “old boys club” due to his doctorate level education and meteoric rise through the ranks, directly from constable to Detective Inspector. The learned trial Judge, amoung other things, said his:
“Throughout the term of the Agreement, Detective Inspector Rossmo’s services were requested and praised by numerous national and international policing agencies. The requesting agency paid all of his travel expenses. His presentations on, and training sessions in, geographic profiling were enthusiastically received locally, nationally, and internationally.
Geographic profiling was the subject of extensive media coverage. Detective Inspector Rossmo was active academically, teaching criminology at Simon Fraser University and writing books, articles and academic papers. There is no doubt that Detective Inspector Rossmo’s unique expertise greatly enhanced the reputation of the VPD. Detective Inspector Rossmo received a number of national and international awards recognizing his contributions to policing and the VPD was the recipient of several honours as a result of his work.
However, within the VPD there was stiff resistance to utilizing Detective Inspector Rossmo’s talents. In January 1999, Rossmo sent a memorandum to the Inspectors in charge of major crime and special investigations, asking them to estimate the number of requests they would have for geographic profiling in the next year. One Inspector returned the form with zeros marked in every category and another Inspector declined to respond at all. That resistance was unwarranted. Rossmo’s skills and expertise were under-utilized locally for the types of criminal investigations particularly suited to geographic profiling.”
However, on her view of the evidence,the trial Judge decided that our client had not been “promoted” as this term was understood by the Court, so his demotion back to constable was not a constructive dismissal, and the special law governing police contracts did not apply to him.