Now that the court proceedings involving Robert Semenchuck have concluded, I want to publicly acknowledge what his deplorable actions have done to those he targeted and, also, to our Service. I also want to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to rebuilding the trust of our community.
As many of you know, I was among those in court who spoke of the deep harm that’s resulted from Mr. Semenchuck’s crimes.  As I told the court, I want to first speak to the profound impact his conduct had on individual victims.
What you, the individual victims, have gone through is unimaginable and never should have happened. I am truly appalled. We know we have much work to do to regain your trust, if ever. I can assure you we are deeply committed to this work.
Without trust, the Regina Police Service cannot serve the City of Regina. Every day each of the nearly 700 members of this Service work tirelessly to earn that trust through respectful, professional interactions with the public. When someone breaches our privacy policies, disregards their oaths of office and bypasses all of the training and security measures we have in place in such an egregious manner, it calls into question the ethics and accountability of all our members.
And yes, police officers are rightfully held to a higher standard than other citizens and we must consistently act in a way that lives up to the expectations of our community. It takes thousands of positive interactions to build trust and confidence, yet it takes only one wrongful act to diminish it, for the entire Service.
The public’s perception and understanding of our organization should be based upon on the incredible work done every day by the members of this Service to investigate and prevent crime, assist victims of crime, build relationships and hold offenders accountable. Right now, that is not the case.
As the leader of this organization, I reaffirm our commitment to restoring and maintaining the confidence of those we serve.
- We will continue to do what we do best – serve our community every single day with compassion, professionalism and integrity.
- We will ensure our community knows that they can and should come forward with any concerns they may have about officer or RPS employee conduct and that it will be investigated thoroughly and objectively.
That being said, I want to thank the victims and involved persons who assisted us in this lengthy and complex investigation. Your courage and patience cannot be overstated. I also want to thank our Professional Standards investigators who, throughout this entire case, have demonstrated the utmost compassion and dedication to the victims and to holding Mr. Semenchuck accountable.
- We will continue to seek out and implement best practices when it comes to systems access and privacy, education, audits and discipline – several changes have already been made in recent years and the work is ongoing.
This includes accepting eight of the nine recommendations brought forward by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner following a separate investigation related to a second officer using a police database for non-work purposes. While these two cases are very different, they both involve improper access to a police database, I will outline those recommendations now and our response to the Privacy Commissioner:
Recommendation 1
That RPS inform the remaining affected individuals of their right of access under section 5Â of LA FOIPÂ so they may choose to submit a formal access to information request to RPS for a summary of the dates and times the police officer searched their personal information.
The Access and Privacy Manager notified all of the affected individuals on January 20, 2026.
Recommendation 2
That the police officer’s access to IEIS be permanently revoked.
As Chief of Police, I respectfully disagree with this recommendation, on the basis that permanent revocation of access to IEIS would effectively prevent an employee from performing their core duties, and would amount to dismissal. The decision on discipline has already been made, and cannot be revisited.
Recommendation 3
Should RPS not revoke the police officer’s access privileges to IEIS, then it is recommended that RPS conduct focused and targeted audits on the police officer’s access to the IEIS database on a monthly basis for an indefinite period to ensure that: (i) the police officer is no longer accessing the personal information of the six affected individuals; and (ii) going forward, the police officer only accesses the personal information on IEIS on a need-to-know basis.
The officer will be subject to random audits of his access to the IEIS database, however those audits will occur at the discretion of the Chief of Police. These safeguards were implemented as part of the disciplinary consequences, in advance of the recommendation of the Privacy Commissioner, and will continue.
Recommendation 4
That RPS install a feature into IEIS that requires RPS members to provide a reason with sufficient particularity when conducting queries. Such a feature will assist RPS in conducting audits to ensure lawful access of personal information in IEIS.
The RPS is reviewing this recommendation with the vendor of the records management system. This functionality is not currently available in the system and will need to be custom built. Unfortunately, this recommendation cannot be immediately implemented but work on it will be ongoing.
Recommendation 5
That the RPS conduct random audits of queries by RPS members (sworn and civilian) of information databases that contain personal information. Audits should be conducted from random samples of a pool of RPS employees, rather than just random audits of RPS files.
The RPS concurred with this recommendation. Random audits were already taking place, having been implemented in April of 2023. An enhanced process was already under consideration prior to the issuance of the Privacy Commissioner’s report. This new process will be implemented in the coming months.
Recommendation 6
That RPS ensure its Access and Privacy Unit is sufficiently resourced to perform audits of access to IEIS and any other information databases that contain personal information, including CPIC and the SGI database.
The RPS 2026 Operating Budget included the addition of an Access and Privacy Specialist. With the addition of this resource, we believe the Unit is adequately staffed with one manager, two specialists, one clerk, and an administrative support person, all of whom report to the Executive Director of Legal Services.
Recommendation 7
That RPS implement a protocol for conducting audits of an employee’s access to personal information in cases where there is evidence that an employee has made an unauthorized access, or in cases where the RPS has reason to suspect the employee may have made unauthorized accesses to personal information.
This protocol already exists. Any complaint of unauthorized access to personal information is immediately investigated and includes an audit of the employee’s access to internal databases. Random audits are also a standard component of any discipline for unauthorized access to confidential information as of January 2025.
There is also proactive work occurring, including audits of randomly generated files, audits of files that are subject to a news release, and random audits of individual access was already planned for 2026.
Recommendation 8
That RPS commit to a policy of zero tolerance for unauthorized breaches of personal information.
Any member of the Regina Police Service caught accessing personal information without a valid work-related reason for doing so is subject to investigation and discipline. This is a zero-tolerance policy. Zero tolerance does not, and cannot mean, a fixed disciplinary response to every instance of inappropriate access to confidential information. Each case must be considered on its own merits. That said, I am committed to ensuring that future disciplinary penalties better reflect public expectations for police accountability.
Recommendation 9
That this matter be conveyed to the Attorney General of Saskatchewan for an opinion with respect to prosecution pursuant to section 56(2)Â of LA FOIP.
The Professional Standards investigative file and the Privacy Breach investigative file were forwarded to Public Prosecutions for a review and recommendation to the Attorney General on January 16, 2026.
In summary, I have carefully considered the report of the Privacy Commissioner, and each of these recommendations. We are committed to doing what we can to make meaningful improvements to our processes and oversight. This was already underway and will be an ongoing process. As a service we are constantly exploring new ways to do better and be better.
As Chief of Police, you have my commitment that we will do the hard work, work that results in the rebuilding of community trust.
We will not get it right every time, but we will not shy away from the task. It’s not going to be easy, and it shouldn’t be. Earned trust is the only trust that truly matters.
Thank you.
Chief Lorilee Davies
Regina Police Service
