A former high-profile spokesman for the RCMP has been suspended with pay pending the outcome of a Code of Conduct investigation.
The interim administrative measure involving Insp. Tim Shields was confirmed by Sgt. Rob Vermeulen Tuesday. It took effect May 19.
Vermeulen did not share further details, noting such investigations are subject to the Privacy Act.
He did note it is not a disciplinary measure.
According to an RCMP backgrounder on the Code of Conduct investigation process, an officer may be suspended from duty "when the member has contravened, is found contravening or is suspected of contravening a provision of the Code of Conduct, Act or Parliament, or legislature of a province."
Shields has been featured in the Peace Arch News many times over the years, both as a spokesman for the Mounties, as well as to share details of a 2010 humanitarian effort he participated in as a White Rock resident in Nicaragua. In 2012, he donated his photograph of the White Rock pier for the city's tourism billboard greeting U.S. border traffic on Highway 99.
More recently, the headlines have focused on civil suits filed against Shields alleging sexual harassment. The first was filed in August 2013; the second in July 2014. He filed a response and "expressly denied" allegations against him.