A member of the Stl’atl’imx Tribal Police Service has been charged with voyeurism following an investigation into allegations he filmed sexual encounters without the consent of his partners, the B.C. RCMP announced Thursday.
Three counts of voyeurism were approved against officer Michael Phillip English on Wednesday.
The alleged offences reportedly happened in Pemberton and Vancouver between 2020 and 2022, while English was off-duty, according to the Sea to Sky RCMP.
In a statement, Sgt. Jeffrey Shore of the detachment’s General Investigation Section thanked “the individuals who came forward to provide information and were patient through this lengthy investigation.”
“Our priority is the safety and well-being of victims, and our team remains committed to standing with them and supporting them through the court process,” Shore said.
There is a publication ban in place to protect the identities of the alleged victims.
In January 2023 – shortly after the Sea to Sky RCMP began investigating the claims – CTV News spoke with two women who said they used to date the officer.
One woman said they had met on the dating app Tinder in April 2022, and that she continued seeing him for months before learning of the alleged recordings.
“I thought we were actually in, like, a kind of relationship-type deal,” she said.
The woman said the officer asked her not to speak to anyone about their relationship, because “he was afraid that his work would find out,” or that “he didn’t want word getting out because it was a small town.”
When the investigation began, the RCMP said the officer had been placed on administrative leave from the Stl’atl’imx Tribal Police Service, which is the only Indigenous policing organization in the province.
The allegations were also forwarded to B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner, an oversight body that monitors complaints against municipal officers.
With files from Alissa Thibault