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The average Ottawa police officer is a straight, white man approaching middle age with a wife and kids.
The profile of the typical officer comes in newly released data from the Ottawa Police Service’s 2012 Workforce Census, the only attempt of its kind to quantify the demographics of a Canadian police force.
Yet, in a city with growing diversity such as Ottawa, how does the “average cop” inform the force’s efforts to recruit more diverse members and have officers who reflect the city?
Staff Sgt. Debbie Miller, heads the outreach, recruitment and resourcing team. She is 44 and one of the first five female black officers hired with the service two decades ago, in 1994. She’s one of two non-white female staff sergeants in the entire police service.
Recruiting women, people from racialized communities, GLBTQ persons — who are on a slight decline in the force — is important to Ottawa police, Miller said, but there are hurdles.
“We’ve noticed across policing that not as many women are coming forward to choose policing as a career,” she said. There are almost two female OPS employees for every three male ones.
“We want women. We need them in our police service.”
To try to remedy the imbalance, OPS had held women-only prep sessions to help female recruit candidates practice for their fitness tests in an environment free of the male gaze. The sessions are free and, aside from the fitness aspect, recruiters are able to sit down with women one-on-one and go over their résumés. The same is offered to all potential recruits, regardless of sex or gender, but the decision was made to hold separate specifically for women. The unit hopes to break the silence that might unintentionally fall over female recruit candidates and their questions in pools with male counterparts who, as the data indicates, are likely to outnumber them not just in recruiting sessions but on the job, too.
The unit is also reaching out to various community organizers to offer an Ottawa police presence at events. The hope is that those who wouldn’t have considered policing a viable career choice might be swayed by seeing recruiters at events that are important to them. Nearly 85 per cent of the current force is white.
Recruiting people from racialized communities comes with it a separate set of challenges, including trying to tackle sometimes internalized cultural distrust of police or a devaluing of police work, Miller said.
The force is hiring, but in relatively smaller numbers than other services. The officers who do get hired aren’t a large enough group to start significantly changing the profile of the service.
“Our end goal is to have a police service that represents the community we serve,” Miller said.
But that goal will change as the demographics of Ottawa do, and despite targeted and sustained efforts, it’s not an exact science. In August, the force will be looking to hire 12 officers, and in choosing those officers the priority has to be finding the best candidates given the requirements and needs of the force, not just filling candidates based on what their profiles will suggest about the force.
Diversity has increased, however, by two per cent from 2005, when the first census was conducted. The service defines “diversity” as having employees “who are a member of a visible minority group, or who are aboriginal, and/or who have a disability.”
There are some attributes that all officers ought to have and must cut across identity lines, Miller said.
That successful officers are community-minded is essentially a pre-requisite in the profession.
Miller also sees the need to manage the expectations for new recruits to ensure that those who do reflect the city’s diversity and are good candidates for the job stay with the service.
Officers will see things others haven’t, will be forced to stand in the cold for hours on end, and must be willing to put in years of work as a patrol officer on the road and without going into flashier sections like major crime, tactical or identification.
“If you’re not built or made to deal with that, then policing is not an option for you,” Miller said.
“Not everyone’s made to become a police officer.”
syogaretnam@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/shaaminiwhy
查看原文...
The profile of the typical officer comes in newly released data from the Ottawa Police Service’s 2012 Workforce Census, the only attempt of its kind to quantify the demographics of a Canadian police force.
Yet, in a city with growing diversity such as Ottawa, how does the “average cop” inform the force’s efforts to recruit more diverse members and have officers who reflect the city?
Staff Sgt. Debbie Miller, heads the outreach, recruitment and resourcing team. She is 44 and one of the first five female black officers hired with the service two decades ago, in 1994. She’s one of two non-white female staff sergeants in the entire police service.
Recruiting women, people from racialized communities, GLBTQ persons — who are on a slight decline in the force — is important to Ottawa police, Miller said, but there are hurdles.
“We’ve noticed across policing that not as many women are coming forward to choose policing as a career,” she said. There are almost two female OPS employees for every three male ones.
“We want women. We need them in our police service.”
To try to remedy the imbalance, OPS had held women-only prep sessions to help female recruit candidates practice for their fitness tests in an environment free of the male gaze. The sessions are free and, aside from the fitness aspect, recruiters are able to sit down with women one-on-one and go over their résumés. The same is offered to all potential recruits, regardless of sex or gender, but the decision was made to hold separate specifically for women. The unit hopes to break the silence that might unintentionally fall over female recruit candidates and their questions in pools with male counterparts who, as the data indicates, are likely to outnumber them not just in recruiting sessions but on the job, too.
The unit is also reaching out to various community organizers to offer an Ottawa police presence at events. The hope is that those who wouldn’t have considered policing a viable career choice might be swayed by seeing recruiters at events that are important to them. Nearly 85 per cent of the current force is white.
Recruiting people from racialized communities comes with it a separate set of challenges, including trying to tackle sometimes internalized cultural distrust of police or a devaluing of police work, Miller said.
The force is hiring, but in relatively smaller numbers than other services. The officers who do get hired aren’t a large enough group to start significantly changing the profile of the service.
“Our end goal is to have a police service that represents the community we serve,” Miller said.
But that goal will change as the demographics of Ottawa do, and despite targeted and sustained efforts, it’s not an exact science. In August, the force will be looking to hire 12 officers, and in choosing those officers the priority has to be finding the best candidates given the requirements and needs of the force, not just filling candidates based on what their profiles will suggest about the force.
Diversity has increased, however, by two per cent from 2005, when the first census was conducted. The service defines “diversity” as having employees “who are a member of a visible minority group, or who are aboriginal, and/or who have a disability.”
There are some attributes that all officers ought to have and must cut across identity lines, Miller said.
That successful officers are community-minded is essentially a pre-requisite in the profession.
Miller also sees the need to manage the expectations for new recruits to ensure that those who do reflect the city’s diversity and are good candidates for the job stay with the service.
Officers will see things others haven’t, will be forced to stand in the cold for hours on end, and must be willing to put in years of work as a patrol officer on the road and without going into flashier sections like major crime, tactical or identification.
“If you’re not built or made to deal with that, then policing is not an option for you,” Miller said.
“Not everyone’s made to become a police officer.”
syogaretnam@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/shaaminiwhy
查看原文...
