A police officer from Edmonton who pleaded guilty to three counts of theft and three counts of breach of trust will not be losing his job following an Alberta Court of Appeal judge's ruling.
Between 2016 and 2017, Const. David Ahlstrom had been involved in three incidents where he stole money from a crime scene, according to the Progress Report.
The ruling explains that Ahlstrom had entered a crime scene in October 2016 and stole $300 cash. He had let his supervisors know he took the money the following day.
Ahlstrom was involved in a second incident in which he took $25 cash and two gift cards worth $50 each after an undercover police officer hadn't him a bag that he claimed to have found.
The third and final incident involved Ahlstrom searching through a stolen vehicle and taking $88 cash and two packs of cigarettes from it.
Ahlstrom would lose his job as a result of an internal review in 2022 but had it reinstated by the Law Enforcement Review Board (LERB). He was instead given a two-year reduction in rank, with the LERB citing PTSD and deep depression as its reasons to keep him.
Police Chief Dale McFee appealed LERB's decision but was swiftly denied by the Court of Appeal of Alberta and Justice Jolaine Antonio.
Given that Ahlstrom had been suspended without pay since 2017, the Edmonton Police Service is "reviewing the appeal decision and determining next steps," according to a spokesperson per CTV News.
"The reality is, obviously the decision that I made in that particular case wasn't the one that the hearing officer thought was the right one," McFee said to CTV News. "I've always been a believer that if it's deceit and/or dishonesty we have to deal with that. That's what this particularly was, or the facts. We live with the consequences and we move on, and we find the best path forward and that's what we'll do."
