OTTAWA -- Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly has announced two new initiatives to raise the ethical standards of the Ottawa Police Service, following the arrest of three constables in an alleged scheme to exchange collision information for money with select tow truck operators.

The RCMP announced the charges Thursday after a nearly 10-month long investigation at the prompting of Ottawa Police last July. Three members of the public were also charged.

Sloly, who was sworn in as chief in October 2019, said he had been made aware of the investigation the day he became the city's top cop and he is now vowing to improve the ethical standards of the force and the morale within it.

"The OPS has been making significant ongoing investments to advance our corporate culture, raise our ethical standards and develop our members. Clearly more needs to be done," Sloly said in a statement that was released shortly after the RCMP announced the charges. "Some of the changes that are needed must start at the very top of the OPS within my office itself."

Sloly announced two new initiatives he said would help to remedy what he called "a major setback" for the police service.

The first is a "Respect, Ethics and Values Unit", which will be mandated with implementing "proactive and reactive strategies to improve professional, ethical, values-based behavior in all members and in the OPS as a whole," Sloly said.

The second is the creation of a Staff Sergeant Major and a Corps Sergeant Major, who will be tasked with improving "organizational morale, esprit de corps and professionalism" within all members.

Both the ethics unit and the majors will report directly to the office of the chief.

"Our community expects that all of our members will fulfill their oath of office as well as that they will act in a lawful, ethical and inclusive manner every day and in every way," Sloly said. "The events of today represent a major set-back for the OPS, but we are fully committed to doing the right things to remedy this - to learn from this and to grow from this."

None of the allegations against the officers or the civilians who were charged in the RCMP investigation have been tested in court.