Two high-ranking Durham police officials have been accused of harassment for allegedly mocking officers’ appearances, ridiculing their personal lives and, in one case, gloating about penis size at staff meetings.The police force has refused to comment on what a spokesperson called “internal personnel matters.”A Star investigation has identified the two senior officials as Rob Wallington, a civilian who managed the Durham police’s strategic planning unit, and Insp. Nick Lisi, who runs a division of 150 officers that patrols Pickering and Ajax.Wallington, currently on leave, said he could not comment as the allegations are the focus of a labour grievance that’s before arbitration. Lisi said the allegations against him are untrue.Durham police has substantiated parts of the harassment complaints against both men, according to documents reviewed by the Star, but the exact findings from the internal investigations remain under wraps. Some of the allegations against Lisi were deemed to be embellished and false, according to a memo to a complainant written by one of Durham’s deputy chiefs.The alleged incidents of harassment — and their fallout — are the latest controversy for a police service riven by dysfunction.Durham police came under fire this fall over its handling of an alleged assault of a Black teenager by an off-duty Toronto cop in Whitby, prompting Durham’s chief to announce a new policy to make sure Ontario’s police watchdog is called in to investigate serious injuries caused by an officer in his region, regardless of whether the cop was from Durham or off-duty.Two Durham officers were arrested in September for their alleged involvement in a drug ring working out of an Ajax bar. Another Durham constable co-owned an unlicensed medical marijuana dispensary that offered illegal products on its website.Durham’s police chief has now hired a retired deputy chief to probe “respect in the workpl ...
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