HALIFAX—The city’s deputy mayor is asking police to review what appears to be an emerging trend of Halifax police officers being arrested, but while the chief is silent, a spokesperson says the incidents are not a reflection of the force.

A Halifax Regional Police officer was arrested on Monday after RCMP responded to a threats call in Eastern Passage. The unnamed officer is the third to be arrested since mid-September, when in a single week, one officer was accused of sexual assault and another of stealing.

“It’s quite concerning, three in a month,” Deputy Mayor Tony Mancini said in an interview at city hall on Tuesday.

“I’ve never seen that before. Is that an indication of something? I don’t know.”

Mancini, who’s also a member of the city’s board of police commissioners, said he sent an email to board chair Natalie Borden and police Chief Dan Kinsella saying he’d like to be briefed on these incidents, and the board will also ask police to look back at charges against officers in the last five years.

“Is there something happening? We need to look at each case separately, but is there anything common in all three? Is there something causing this?” Mancini asked.

“I don’t want to speculate. That’s why I’m asking for a debrief.”

Mayor Mike Savage said in an interview that it’s concerning whenever an officer is charged with a crime.

“I think when you have a number of them all at once, that’s worthy of some special response,” he said.

Asked what he meant by special response, Savage said he’s not sure whether there’s something the chief can do beyond suspending officers with pay, but he said it’s something he’s sure the chief and the board of police commissioners will be looking into.

Meanwhile, the province’s police watchdog is investigating the latest incident.

At about 4 p.m. Monday, Halifax RCMP responded to a threats complaint in Eastern Passage.

The incident involved a man and a woman who are known to each other, the Mounties said. The man, an off-duty Halifax municipal police officer, was found nearby and arrested.

RCMP said the woman was not with the man at the time of the incident, and no one was injured.

Caldwell Road was closed for several hours but has since been reopened.

Halifax Regional Police confirmed on Tuesday that one of their officers was arrested in Eastern Passage by the RCMP “in relation to an incident involving a person known to the officer.”

In accordance with the Police Act, RCMP referred the incident to the Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT), which has taken over the investigation.

Acting SIRT director, Shauna MacDonald, could not add any more details about the incident, including how the threats were made or why the roadway needed to be closed, other than saying that responding RCMP officers had decided it was necessary.

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This is the fourth case of Halifax police officers being investigated by SIRT so far this year, including three in the last month.

“These incidents are not a reflection of us as an organization or the hard work, and professionalism our sworn and civilian members display day in and day out,” police spokesperson Const. John MacLeod wrote in an emailed statement on Tuesday.

“We expect officers to be above reproach at all times; anything less cannot and will not be tolerated by our service. Our officers’ conduct is critical to building and maintaining the public’s trust, and we take any allegation of wrongdoing on the part of our officers very seriously.”

Star Halifax’s request for an interview with police Chief Dan Kinsella was declined on Tuesday.

MacLeod said it’s expected that the latest arrested officer will be suspended with pay shortly to coincide with their standard practice.

In the other 2019 cases, an officer was accused in July of sexually assaulting a woman he arrested while in a police cruiser. That investigation is ongoing. Halifax Regional Police said at the time that the officer in question was still on duty.

On Sept. 14, a police officer was arrested after allegedly stealing from a business in Halifax. The charges have yet to be officially sworn in that case, and police say the officer was suspended with pay.

Days later on Sept. 19, SIRT laid charges against 51-year-old Det.-Const. Joseph Farrow for unlawfully entering the home of someone he knew and sexually assaulting them on Sept. 18.

Halifax police said Farrow was off duty at the time of the alleged incident, which took place in the Tantallon area around 2 p.m.

Farrow has been suspended without pay.

In 2018, SIRT opened three investigations into Halifax Regional Police officers, and three were also opened in 2017.

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