Veteran Regina officer suspended for 30 days, charged with prohibited driving

A Regina police officer who was charged with impaired driving and failing to stop at the scene of a collision in 2019 is now looking at more driving-related charges.

Const. Scott Shane Ash, a 12-year veteran of the Regina Police Service, is facing six charges including operating a conveyance while prohibited, according to a media release from police.

Following an investigation, Ash has been relieved from duty on Thursday for a period of 30 days with pay, police Chief Evan Bray told reporters a news conference on Thursday.

"That's a provision of the Saskatchewan Police Act," he said. "We don't have an option of not relieving him with pay off the start."

The chief says he assumes that the suspension with pay will have to be extended once the 30 days have elapsed and while the case goes through the court system and administrative process.

Prohibited driver 

An automated licence plate reader (ALPR) aboard a police vehicle emitted an alarm on Aug. 19, 2021, signaling a suspended driver, police said earlier. The alarm sounded as police drove by a parked vehicle, which was later identified as Ash's.

The investigation confirmed that Ash, 38, was a prohibited driver, and said that Ash "operated police vehicles as a Regina Police Service Constable on at least six occasions between July 14, 2021 and August 26, 2021," the news release said.

While the investigation revealed that Ash was driving to work as well as while at work, the six charges are all related to the times the constable was operating a police vehicle, not one he owns, Bray said.

According to police, they were not aware that Ash's driver's licence had been suspended on July 14, 2021 due to unpaid fines in connection with the constable's guilty plea on an impaired-driving charge in 2019.

"There [was] a decision from the court as to what the consequences of that would be, and one of the consequences was a fine," Bray said. "It was that fine that was not paid and, as a result of that, that's what rendered him to have a suspended licence."

In 2019, the court had also given Ash a one-year driving suspension.

Police will conduct an administrative investigation

During the recent investigation police also found out Ash was only allowed to drive a vehicle with an ignition interlock device, police said. That requirement is also related to Ash's 2019 guilty plea.

These matters have still to be proven in court, police said. 

Bray said the Regina Police Service does not run a regular Canadian Police Information Centre check on members of the force.

"When it comes to something like this, obviously, you know, we would hope that members would be upfront with us and truthful," he said. "There's some fairly strict guidelines around running a name on CPIC. You've got to give the reason behind it. It's got to be a defendable reason. There's audits that are done on that system, no different than accessing SGI."

The department's professional standards unit will conduct an administrative investigation, but it won't conclude until after the criminal matters have been dealt with, police said.

While Ash is technically still an employee of the Regina Police Service, he is no longer working in any capacity for the force right now, according to Bray.

"We've removed all identification that he has," he said. "We will hold that until the conclusion of this matter."

Once the court and administrative processes are completed, the force will decide about Ash's future as a police officer, Bray said. Police will also look into potential changes of internal processes to prevent cases such as this from happening again.

"Once we knew that that court-ordered, one-year suspension [from 2019] was done, there was actually about three or four more months before he was transferred to the street," Bray said. "I now would ensure that we have a process that does some other, further checks." 

That might include seeking further information from SGI, according to the police chief.

Ash is scheduled to appear in provincial court on March 24.