The Associated Press
VANCOUVER (CP) -- A former police officer who developed a method of geographic profiling to catch criminals lost his appeal Monday in a wrongful dismissal suit.
Kim Rossmo had accused the Vancouver Police Department and one of its senior officers of wrongful dismissal.
In ruling against Rossmo’s appeal, the B.C. Court of Appeal also overturned a decision that denied Deputy Chief Const. John Unger his costs in defending the action.
Rossmo devised a computer program for geographical profiling to catch serial offenders, which formed the basis of his university dissertation.
Eager to capitalize on Rossmo’s reputation, a former Vancouver police chief created a geographical profiling unit and put Rossmo in charge of it with the rank of detective inspector.
Rossmo signed a five-year contract. But the police department later said it did not have the money to fund the unit.
Rossmo, four years from retirement, rejected the two-year extension that was offered and the department responded with a letter telling him he was being demoted to constable.
The Appeal Court found the trial judge made no error in finding that it was simply a matter of a contract running out.
The proceedings became mired in accusations that Unger was among a group of senior officers who had a grudge against Rossmo, and that Unger was motivated by malice when he had a letter sent to Rossmo by the head of personnel before the police board had decided his future.
“I think it was a red herring for the most part,” Justice Ian Donald noted in his decision Monday.
Rossmo resigned from the Vancouver department and took a prestigious job at a police policy think-tank in Washington, D.C.