VANCOUVER -- B.C.’s director of police services says she’s leaving the organization to spend more time with her family because of health reasons, according to an email sent to staff.
In the email, obtained by CTV News, Brenda Butterworth-Carr writes “my decision to resign is due to an unanticipated personal health matter. This is an issue that will demand my full attention and energy for a while. But I believe, with the support of my family and proper care, I will be able to return to full health.”
Butterworth-Carr has been in the job only two years and her departure comes in the middle of a complex transition to the Surrey Police Department.
The email goes on to say “There has been speculation that my departure is tied to investigations or other political circumstances. These reports are unfounded and untrue.”
An earlier memo, also obtained by CTV News, announced Butterworth-Carr is leaving her position early in the new year and there is no successor planned at this point.
In a news conference, B.C. Solicitor-General Mike Farnworth said he had no comment.
“Even in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic, I know this work will continue to advise and great progress will be made to modernize policing and public safety,” Butterworth-Carr wrote in the memo.
Her office is responsible for several facets of policing, including vetting candidates for police boards, which provide civilian oversight over municipal forces.
The Vancouver Sun reported earlier this month that one person picked for the police board in Surrey, Harvey Chappell, posed with members of the White Rock Hells Angels in photos from 2018.
Butterworth-Carr is also one of three officers named in a complaint about how the force handled the aftermath of the tasering of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski in 2007. The others were Comm. Brenda Lucki and Insp. Kevin Cyr.
That complaint was referred to the Ontario Provincial Police, which is now doing an investigation.
With files from CTV's Jon Woodward
