We
have to ask that question. They are the poor. They are the people in Latin
America who call for reform. They are the landless peasants who are hungry.
They are health care workers, human rights advocates, labor organizers. They
become the insurgents. They are seen as "the enemy." They are those
who become the targets of those who learn their lessons at the School of the
Americas." - Father Roy Bourgeois:
Professional
body could be key to modernizing police
In his review of police oversight, Justice Michael
Tulloch recommended that Ontario follow the lead of England and Wales and
create a College of Policing to develop “a culture of professionalization
through a more regulated body.”
POLICE STATE - Toronto Cops Arrest 9 Year Old Boy
Suffering From Autism
The College of Policing for England
and Wales oversees 200,000 police personnel and is in the midst of implementing
significant changes including introducing post-secondary educational
requirements and developing ongoing training requirements to reflect the
shifting demands of police work (DOMINIC LIPINSKI / AFP/GETTY IMAGES
FILE PHOTO)
By Wendy GillisNews reporter
Fri., April 28, 2017
Toronto Police Assault a Homeless Addict
Chief Constable Alex Marshall
references midwifery more than you might expect for lifelong cop. But in his
current role as chief executive officer of England and Wales’ College of
Policing, the business of birthing babies helps explain how the world’s first
professional police body came to be.
When a midwife arrives at a home, he
explains, you assume that as a member of a regulated profession she is
qualified to deliver a baby. She knows best practices for complications that
arise, based on up-to-date research. She is properly accredited and has
specialized skills.
But if a police officer shows up at
the house next door, where a woman is being abused by her husband and their
children are at risk, he’s not certain equivalent assumptions can be made.
“Are they qualified to the same
level? Did they undertake the same continuing professional development? Are
they up to speed with the latest developments in their profession?” Marshall,
who has been in policing for nearly four decades, asks in a recent interview.
Toronto Officer Punches Man Multiple Times During An
Arrest
“Over here, I think if you make that
comparison, we haven’t supported the front-line police officers sufficiently
that the answer would be yes. The answer at the moment would be no.”
England and Wales are working toward
that “yes” thanks to the ongoing move to professionalize policing, creating in
2012 a College of Policing similar to regulating bodies
overseeing lawyers, doctors, teachers, nurses, midwives and more.
Shooting of Sammy Yatim by Toronto Police -
Policebrutality.us
Headquartered in London, the
policing college — which oversees 200,000 police personnel, serving 50 million
people — is in the midst of implementing significant changes, including
introducing post-secondary educational requirements, licensing for specialized
roles within policing, and developing ongoing training to reflect the shifting
demands of police work, including interactions with people with mental health
challenges.
“In essence it’s to raise
professional standards in policing and particularly to recognize that police
work has changed really quite dramatically in recent years,” Marshall said.
The unprecedented model is one
Ontario would be wise to study, according to Justice Michael Tulloch.
In his far-reaching report on police oversight, the Ontario
Court of Appeal judge recommended Ontario give “serious consideration” to
establishing a professional body for policing.
Stressing that it would not replace
the watchdogs he was tasked with reviewing, such as the Special Investigations
Unit, Tulloch said a college of policing could ultimately reduce the work of
the province’s oversight agencies “through the selection, promotion, and
support of officers who embody the ideals of professionalism.”
Toronto Police Arrest Man
Among the central aims of such a
college, Tulloch said, would be establishing province-wide standards for hiring
and promotion. Requirements needed to enter and continue in policing “remain
largely static, ill-defined, and inconsistent,” Tulloch wrote.
All police officers undergo training
at the Ontario Police College, located in Aylmer, Ont. which provides basic
recruit training as well as refresher and specialist courses. But some
services, including the Toronto police, provide their own additional training
from the recruit stage onward, meaning there is no “consistent, province-wide
professional standard.”
Additionally, a college of policing
could establish greater mandatory education for all Ontario officers in the
increasingly vital areas of anti-racism studies, mental health, domestic abuse,
social and cultural competency, serving vulnerable communities and more,
Tulloch said.
Calling policing traditionally
“white, male, and hypermasculine,” Tulloch said the development of a
professional body could help achieve a more progressive and inclusive police
culture from the ground up, countering the “indoctrination” that happens “as
early as initial training.”
“Stakeholders told me that training
emphasizes traits such as physical strength, stoicism, and loyalty to fellow
officers. While those traits are admirable and may be beneficial to the work of
a police officer, they should not overwhelm other traditional traits such as
empathy and compassion.”
Indeed, during the development of
England and Wales’ college, Marshall says there was initial resistance from
police ranks, in part because of the “British Bobby” tradition — an old-school
term for what’s now considered an outdated definition of a cop, prized for
traits such as toughness and bravery.
Toronto Police shoot deer
“They need that as well, but that’s
rather underestimating the critical thinking you need from people in policing
now, dealing with complex child abuse cases, domestic violence cases, online
cyber fraud — it’s not quite as it was when I joined 37 years ago.”
Buy-in from the front line, Marshall
said, is “improving all the time,” though he acknowledges that there is still a
long way to go. What has helped is sending the message that the college exists
to help officers better understand the role of modern police.
The college’s code of ethics, for example, is intended to help
officers “make difficult decisions and stay on the right line ethically — it’s
not the naughty book on the things you can get wrong,” Marshall said.
Bruce Chapman, president of the
Police Association of Ontario, said called a professional police college an
“interesting concept” and said learning more about the England and Wales model
is high on his priority list following Tulloch’s recommendation.
But he said there are “a million
unanswered questions” about what college would look like in Ontario — including
how existing training programs, such as post-secondary “police foundations”
courses, would fit into the picture.
He also said there is already a
similar training and standards requirements for specialized roles within
policing.
Toronto Police Officer Threatens To Taser Man's
Genitals (RAW VIDEO)
“To be an expert witness in, say,
the drug squad, you have to go through the educational component. So whether
you attach a certification or a license to it, basically they are all certified
anyway,” Chapman said. “If the college wants to standardize it . . . I don’t
think we have any issues with it.”
Terry Coleman, who spent decades
with the Calgary Police Service and is a former Moose Jaw police chief, agreed
with an important distinction Tulloch made in his report: “policing language is
always about training, but what we’re talking about is education.”
Coleman strongly supports the idea
of developing a licence for some roles within policing, saying it could go a
long way toward the central goal of policing today: the establishment and
maintenance of public confidence, he said.
Paul McKenna, Paul McKenna, a public
safety consultant and adjunct professor at Dalhousie University, also supports
the professionalizing policing, saying that across Canada there needs to be an
“unpacking” of what police academies teach.
“It still strikes me as very bizarre
that in the 21st century, when we’re trying to create a different kind of
officer — someone who has communication skills and can de-escalate — that we
still spend huge amounts of time on close-order drills, so that we teach them
to march.
“That to me symbolizes part of what
is, perhaps, wrong with the model of police training right now.”
Ontario’s Attorney General Yasir
Naqvi said his ministry, which commissioned Tulloch’s report on police
oversight, will closely review the judge’s 129 recommendations.
Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca
