The Calgary Police Service issued a Canada-wide warrant for the arrest of a former CPS officer on Dec. 4, following a 16-month investigation into a professional standards breach.

Brett Singer, 51, was charged with one count of breach of trust, and one count of misuse of a computer system after allegedly using Calgary police databases to contact women after he had initial contact with them through calls for service.

Calgary Police Service Chief Mark Neufeld said that the service took the unprecedented step to issue the national warrant for Singer’s arrest after it was believed he left Canada.

“Today’s announcement is one that has me disgusted, disappointed, and frankly embarrassed,” he said.

“This type of behaviour certainly does undermine trust and confidence with the public in a very serious way. It actually runs contrary to the work that the members of the Calgary Police Service do in the community every day. So yes, it is demoralizing.”

Singer was accused by the service of engaging in personal relationships with multiple women between 2008 and 2023.

An initial complaint was made against Singer in July of 2023, by a Calgary woman said Chief Neufeld.

“He’s alleged to have contacted her subsequently, ostensibly to follow up and ultimately cultivated a romantic relationship through various means. The original complainant became aware of several other women who allegedly had similar experiences with this same officer, also meeting in the context of dispatch calls for service,” Neufeld said.

“The original complainant provided those additional names to our professional standards investigators. Professional Standards section commenced an investigation, which resulted in them being able to confirm various details that had been reported by the complainants.”

The chief said that investigators were able to review access logs from CPS databases, finding that Singer accessed information to allegedly aid in making inappropriate advances.

“To be clear, this is not a lawful reason to be accessing such information, and as the investigation matured the service notified and regularly updated the provincial director of law enforcement,” he said.

Multiple victims identified, but more may have had contact with Singer

Katherine Murphy, Executive Director of the CPS Legal and Regulatory Services Division, said that approximately 10 victims were identified by the service.

She said that by issuing the Canada-wide warrant for the arrest of Singer, the service was sending a strong message to Calgarians and to Calgary Police Service officers about zero tolerance for accessing police systems for personal use.

“I also want to say that what you’re seeing today is part of an effort on our part for a strong message of deterrence. It is unprecedented for us to issue a warrant for a serving or former police officer and to hold availability to answer questions about this extremely disappointing case,” Murphy said.

Singer was removed from front-line service, and from having access to police databases in 2023, before being suspended with pay in January of 2024. He was suspended without pay in September 2024, and subsequently, Singer resigned from the Calgary Police Service.

Chief Neufeld said that the investigation was referred to Alberta’s Crown Prosecution Service in July of 2024 and that they recommended two charges against Singer.

He said that Singer left the country lawfully before the charges were laid and that the Canada-wide warrant was in place to ensure that he would be arrested if he returned to Canada.

“I would say we have information about where he may be, but because we don’t have independent confirmation of that I don’t see any value in going and speculating in terms of where he is. I think the big thing to note is the individual does have significant ties back to Canada, and if he returns to Canada, he will immediately be arrested,” Neufeld said.

Murphy said that CPS was asking anyone who may have been contacted inappropriately by Singer, to come forward to police.

“It’s possible there are more, and I commend these women for coming forward. That takes a significant amount of courage because we recognize that when our members respond to any call for service, they are in a position of power and authority over everyone that they are interacting with on that call for service,” she said.

“If there’s anyone else that’s received personal contact from a police officer after an interaction on duty, I strongly encourage them to contact our professional standards section through our website. We have taken this investigation extremely seriously, and we’ll do the same if we receive any further disclosures.”

Anyone with information on these incidents, or any other, can contact police at 403-266-1234 or submit tips anonymously through Crime Stoppers.