BARRIE, Ont. - Cops investigating cops over the alleged sexual harassment and sexual assault of a female officer isn't the kind of independent investigation that the woman's lawyer had in mind.

Barrie police Chief Mark Neelin said Thursday he's calling in Durham regional police to look into allegations of officer misconduct on his force.

That's after one of his former officers filed a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario against the Barrie Police Service.

In her complaint filed last Oct. 15, Christina Farrell alleges sexual harassment, sexual solicitation or advances, family status reprisal and threat of reprisal.

She is seeking $225,000.

The complaint contains serious allegations of wrongdoing, and the Barrie Police Service takes any accusations like these very seriously, Neelin told a news conference.

The chief said he supported the legislated right for any employee to bring a complaint before the tribunal.

If that's the case, Farrell's lawyer Lorne Sabsay questioned why the Barrie Police Services Board is fighting to have the complaint before the tribunal dismissed in a telephone hearing set for April 7.

"I'm very pleased to see that the Barrie Police Service wants a full and independent and fair hearing of the facts," Sabsay said in a telephone interview on Thursday.

"It is unfortunate that that is not the position that they're taking at the Human Rights Tribunal where they are attempting to ensure there is no hearing at all in relation to the facts."

It's a "very positive thing" Durham police have been called in, but there is the "thin blue line aspect," he said.

"That's why we went to the Human Rights Tribunal to avoid having cops investigating cops," he said.

"I don't think the investigation can truly be independent and impartial unless it is conducted by an outside agency or at a hearing like my client sought at the Human Rights Tribunal," said Sabsay.

The police service is trying to have the complaint dismissed on the grounds that Farrell went beyond the one-year time limit for filing a complaint, said Sabsay.

But Sabsay disputes that, saying the alleged discrimination and harassment of his client continued well after the first class constable quit the force in 2008 and has extended to her husband, Const. Nathan Bowman.

Among the allegations in her complaint, Farrell said that despite telling her supervisor she was pregnant, she was ordered to search a drunk and unruly prisoner alone in a cell in 2001. Farrell was beaten up by the prisoner and suffered a miscarriage as a result, according to Sabsay.

Farrell also alleges her father, Barrie Insp. Jim Farrell, told her to keep quiet about the incident because a complaint could damage her career and reflect poorly on him.

The former officer also claimed she was sexually assaulted and sexually harassed by a senior officer in a car while she was a newly hired cadet.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Neelin said he called in the province's Special Investigations Unit to check into an allegation regarding possible sexual assault involving an officer that was included in the Human Rights concerns.

The SIU finished its investigation Feb. 3 and cleared the incident without laying charges, said Neelin.