Alberta’s police watchdog recommended laying charges against three Lethbridge officers who used police databases to improperly access the personal information of two people, including NDP MLA Shannon Phillips, but the Crown’s office has declined to prosecute, CBC News has learned.

Details of two recently completed Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) investigations come from a letter sent by ASIRT director Mike Ewenson to Phillips’s lawyer, Michael Bates.

Despite calling the Crown’s refusal to pursue charges “quite regrettable,” Phillips says she is feeling vindicated after years of pursuing police accountability.

“I think it sends a message to the public that in order to get even a sliver of accountability, even a tiny little ray of light on transparency and accountability in a police service, you have to fight, you have to pay a personal cost, you have to wait years, and even then it will be partial,” said Phillips in a phone interview.

“The system overall is quite broken.”