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The use by police officers of discriminatory language toward prostitutes adversely affected the work of the Vancouver Police Department's missing women investigation, Deputy Chief Doug LePard told the missing women inquiry.

Derogatory statements about prostitutes by two police officers and a civilian clerk hindered the work of the Vancouver police investigation into missing women, a senior officer has told the Pickton inquiry.

Vancouver Deputy Chief Doug LePard told the inquiry Tuesday that the conduct of Detective Constables Doug Fell and Mark Wolthers and of clerk Sandy Cameron impaired the investigation team's ability to do their work.

As a clerk with the missing-women unit, Ms. Cameron received reports of missing women from the 911-call centre and prioritized the calls, the inquiry heard. In some instances – the inquiry has not heard how many – she did not accept calls about sex trade workers who were reported missing.

Deputy Chief LePard agreed with lawyer Jason Gratl that delays in starting an investigation into a missing person made police work more difficult. Her decisions around setting priorities could have affected the investigation of missing women, the inquiry heard.

Families of victims, aboriginal groups and women from the Downtown Eastside for years have accused the Vancouver Police Department of bias against prostitutes. The Missing Women Inquiry is looking into why police did not arrest serial killer Robert Pickton earlier than February, 2002.

Mr. Gratl, appointed by the inquiry to represent views of the people of the Downtown Eastside, asked Deputy Chief LePard about documents referring to the conduct of the clerk and the two police officers as well as reports in which police officers routinely used the word "hooker."

Deputy Chief LePard confirmed that internal reports stated that the two police officers used discriminatory language about prostitutes.

In one report, the lead investigator in the missing-women unit, Detective Constable Lori Shenher, wrote that Det. Constables Fell and Wolthers were "not friends to the working women that they pretend to be." Det. Constable Shenher wrote in a letter, confirmed by Deputy Chief LePard, that every member of the missing persons review team had heard Det. Constables Fell and Wolthers use obscenities when talking about the victims and refer to them as "whores‬".

Their discriminatory language created a significant problem and affected the work of the group, he told the inquiry.

Neither Ms. Cameron nor the two officers was ever disciplined, as far as he knew, Deputy Chief LePard said. He added that he was not sure what managers knew at the time. "Anyone who knew of information had a duty to deal with it," he said.

"Whatever we might try to do to [Det. Constables Fell and Wolthers]years after the offence is nothing compared to what is happening to them at this moment," he said, referring to the publicity at the inquiry.

Their conduct did not indicate a systemic bias throughout the police department, Deputy Chief LePard also said.

The term "hooker" was used by numerous officers in memos and reports in the late 1990s and later.

The inquiry heard that Don Adam, head of the joint RCMP-Vancouver Police task force investigating the missing women, known publicly as Project Evenhanded, identified the group as "the hooker task force" in an internal memo.

Deputy Chief LePard said an inference of bias against prostitutes could not necessarily be drawn by the use of the word hooker. "It was a common word [at that time,] he said. "It was not meant to be insulting by many members who used it."

He said the word could be a sign of disrespect and derision but the time, the person who was using it and the context had to be considered before deciding whether the word was used in a pejorative sense. "Language does evolve, and we are dealing with a certain time and a certain generation of police officer," Deputy Chief LePard said.

Using the term hooker would not be acceptable now, he also said.

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