Ottawa
Police Services Board
Minutes
45
Monday,
28 May, 2018, 4:00 PM
Champlain Room 110 Laurier Ave. West
Krista Ferraro, Executive Director
(613) 580-2424, ext 21618
Krista.Ferraro@ottawa.ca
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Present: Councillor E. El-Chantiry (Chair), L.A.
Smallwood, (Vice Chair), A. Blaustein, Councillor A. Hubley, C. Nicholson
Regrets: Councillor T. Tierney, S. Valiquet
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CONFIRMATION
OF AGENDA
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DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
There were no declarations of interest.
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COMMITTEE MEETINGS:
REPORTS FROM COMMITTEE CHAIRS & MINUTES
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Human Resources Committee – Draft Minutes of 7 May
2018
Finance and Audit Committee - Draft Minutes of 7 May
2018
Complaints Committee – Draft Minutes of 16 May 2018
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That
the Ottawa Police Services Board receive this report for information.
CARRIED
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1.
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CHIEF’S VERBAL REPORT
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Chief Bordeleau reported on the following items: Homicides,
Tamarack Marathon, ByWard Market and Downtown Rideau, Cst. T. Gill, Police
Week 2018, Fentanyl, Diversity Audit; Graybridge Malkam, Canada Road Safety
Week and DC J. Skinner. (A copy
of the Chief’s verbal report is available online.)
The rollout for Bike Patrol has already begun. Members
are going through their requalification / recertification training and new
members are being trained.
The deadline for the Diversity Audit is January 2019. An
update presentation will be made at the June meeting.
That the
Ottawa Police Services Board receive this report for information.
RECEIVED
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2.
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Chief's report
Presentation
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Ms. J. Jennings, Executive Director, Byward Market BIA,
spoke about the training the ambassadors go through, which will now include mental
health training. She also discussed the recent restructuring of the program that
has resulted in the Byward Market BIA being 100% responsible for the day-to-day
operations, supervision and scheduling of the Ambassadors.
That
the Ottawa Police Services Board continue to endorse the Street Ambassador
program and approve the release of a $10,000.00 contribution to the ByWard
Market Business Improvement Area for operation of the program in 2018.
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CARRIED
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3.
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Presentation
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Ms. C. Mooney, Executive Director, Boys and Girls Club
of Ottawa, drew the Board’s attention to highlights of the progress they have
made in the renovation of their new Club House. (A copy of the
presentation is kept on file with the Board’s Executive Director.)
That the Ottawa Police Services Board:
1)
Authorize the transfer of $50,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa
as approved in the 2018 Budget.
CARRIED
2) That the Ottawa
Police Services Board receive this presentation for information.
RECEIVED
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4. POLICE OFFICERS
SCHOLARSHIP AND CHARITABLE FUND
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Executive Director’s
report
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That the Ottawa Police Services Board:
1) Forego its annual, $7,000 capital contribution to
the Police Officers Scholarship and Charitable Fund for 2018/2019 however
remain a party to the fund with the Ottawa Police Association and continue
the administration of individual scholarships to eligible children of
permanent and retired members of the Ottawa Police Service;
2) Revisit future contributions in 2019, as
recommended by the Finance and Audit Committee.
CARRIED
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5.
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Executive Director's report
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That the Ottawa Police Services Board approve:
1. The attendance of Vice Chair Smallwood, Member
Blaustein at the 2018 Canadian Association of Police Governance Conference
being held in Winnipeg, Manitoba from 9 – 11 August 2018.
2. A $1,500 Bronze sponsorship for the Canadian
Association of Police Governance’s 2018 Annual Conference.
CARRIED
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6.
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RENEWAL OF MICROSOFT ENTERPRISE
AGREEMENT
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Chief's report
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A
question was raised as to why the taxes are non-refundable. It was clarified
that a significant portion of the HST paid by the OPS is refunded; amount
paid in HST is 1.6%, which is consistent with what the City pays.
That the Ottawa
Police Services Board approve the renewal of a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement
through Microsoft for a three year term from 01 April 2018 to 31 March 2021
at an approximate three year cost of $2,641,919.50, including non-refundable
taxes.
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CARRIED
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7.
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RENEWAL
OF OC TRANSPO SPECIAL CONSTABLE PROGRAM
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Chief’s report
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That the Ottawa
Police Services Board approve the continuation of the OC Transpo Special
Constable Program for a term of five years.
CARRIED
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8.
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BACKGROUND
CHECKS
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Presentation
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Director
General Frazer and Mr. J. Letourneau updated the Board on the status of
Background Checks and the fee structure that will be considered. (A copy of the presentation is kept on file with the
Board’s Executive Director.)
It was clarified that overhead costs are being taken
into account in the updated fee structure, which includes a significant
staffing component as well as IT infrastructure that drives the direct costs
related to the checks. A request was made to have more detail be provided
pertaining to the numbers being proposed for overhead costs.
In terms of the costing options, a request was made to
have an option added that reduces the cost of the easily processed checks and
increases the cost of the more time consuming checks.
The private sector/outsourcing pricing is identified
within the report. It is possible for third parties to complete Level 1
checks only. There are police services who have taken this on as a
business. If the OPS were to consider this option they would have to
reconsider the size of their lobby at Queensview as walk-in business is
limited due to fire restrictions.
OPS volume is mainly within the Level 2 and 3 checks.
It was suggested that this information be available during the public
consultations as some might suggest it is available at a lower cost.
That the Ottawa
Police Services Board receive this presentation for information.
RECEIVED
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9.
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CONDUCTED
ENERGY WEAPON EXPANSION PROGRAM
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Chief’s report
Presentation
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The Board received a presentation from DG Frazer, Supt. S.
Hartley and Supt. M. Ford. Ms. Frazer apologized for the lateness of the
report and the amendments to the recommendations as staff was negotiating
until the final moments. (A copy
of the presentation is kept on file with the Board’s Executive Director.)
Ms. H. Stecher, wished to voice her concerns to
the Board regarding CEWs. She explained that she is not anti-police in any
way, but she is terrified by this plan as an individual with multiple
disabilities. She has lost a portion of her hearing. The plan accounts for
mental health issues but not individuals who cannot hear.
The Vice Chair was concerned that this expansion would
not take into account de-escalation training however he is pleased with the
report and is impressed with the statistics. The Chief added that the
province is currently working on a new framework for use of force that will
include de-escalation. This information will be accessible later this year
through the Province.
That the Board approve:
1. An amendment to the Board’s Use of Force
Policy AL-012 to replace the language in section iii as follows; The Chief of
Police will be authorized to: Issue a conducted energy weapon (CEW) to all
Sworn police officers.
2. The purchase of 800 CEWs from M.D. Charlton
Co. Ltd. of $449,627.20 (exclusive of taxes) for the Phase 1 and Phase 2 of
the expansion plan. (This will be the first of five annual payments.)
CARRIED as amended
3. That the Ottawa Police Services Board receive
this report for information.
RECEIVED as amended
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10.
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QUALITY
ASSURANCE ANNUAL REPORT 2017 (COMPLIANCE WITH MINISTRY STANDARDS)
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Chief’s report
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That the Ottawa
Police Services Board receive this report for information.
RECEIVED
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11.
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SERVICE
INITIATIVE CLOSE OUT REPORT
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Chief’s report
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The
Chief acknowledged all the hard work done by DC J. Skinner and her team. (A copy of the presentation is kept on file with the
Board’s Executive Director.)
Ms. L. Marleau, Crime
Prevention Vanier
Ms. C. Parrott, Security Committee
In response to the presenters’ comments about educating
the public on reporting, Supt. M. Ford explained that more information will
be coming forward in the evaluation process. In the interim, officers will
be working with community members to address reporting clarifications and
expectations.
DC Skinner explained that online reporting continues to
evolve. They are attempting to simplify some of the processes according to
incident type. Unless staff know about the challenges the public are facing
they cannot be worked out. The reporting process must be made as easy as
possible for the community to report something.
Mr. T. Harris, Federation of Citizens
of Ottawa
Chair El-Chantiry explained that Board Member Valiquet
participated in CICAG and has plans to reach out to other community members
to discuss the next steps.
The Community Safety Services Framework introduced the
concept of Formalized Community Networks (FCNs) that provide a focused
approach for Community Police Officers (CPOs) to enhance existing
relationships with communities. The FCN has a process that allows crime
trending tracking. Crime analysts provide information on the crime trends
that are occurring and decisions are based on complexity and the prioritization
of resources.
Referencing page 14 of the presentation and the
Strategic Review and White Paper completed on Civilianization and Outsourcing
of Police Services, D/C Skinner noted that the paper did not come to the
Board. It was a white paper to inform decision makers within the police
service about the opportunities that are available for outsourcing. Bill 175
gives the OPS an impetus to resurrect the paper and make sure that decision
makers have the knowledge and are prepared to use it as necessary. A request
was made to have this information included as part of the response to the
outstanding inquiry on outsourcing.
The Continuous Improvement Office is the plan for the
future and will have to be included in the 2019 Budget. An assessment
evaluation of the changes that have taken place will be conducted.
Members of CICAG were surveyed and most were satisfied
with the outcome. The community advisory group is essential, however, roles
and responsibilities must be understood by everyone. The group attempted to
be all things to anyone. Information must be available about what the
organization looks like. In future the process must be more focused.
A
concern was raised about the rotation of officers patrolling under the new
mode. It was suggested that it makes it difficult for officers to better
understand the area and build relationships and trust with those who live and
work there. D/C Skinner explained that there are still community officers in
Centretown that have bikes and walk the beat. The difference now is that it
is a service delivery method. Members of the front line, who are working in
lower town on patrol, work all of their shifts in that zone. It may not be
daily, but it is on their scheduled shifts.
There
have been numerous discussions about monitoring the success of the program.
Due to the number of people trying to understand the new processes, the
requirement is on the leaders of the organization to continue to monitor and
make changes for the good of the organization. Members will be happier when
they are more engaged in their work; there is a need to invigorate this with
strong communications down the chain of command.
That the Ottawa
Police Services Board receive this report for information.
RECEIVED
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12.
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PERFORMANCE
REPORT: FIRST QUARTER 2018
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Chief’s report
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That the Ottawa
Police Services Board receive this report for information.
RECEIVED
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13.
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FINANCIAL
STATUS REPORT: 1ST QUARTER 2018
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Chief’s report
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Referencing
the 2018 First Quarter Financial Report, Financial Accounts, Compensation is showing
42.4% spent to date. It was explained that the numbers are associated with
retirement costs, which are front loaded at the beginning of each year.
The
Chair wondered if there was an opportunity to do a similar assessment on the
paid duty program to ensure it is truly priced for full cost recovery. It
was suggested that the process used for background checks be replicated with
paid duties and reported back to the Board. It would be a good exercise to
ensure all costs are being recovered and not subsidized in any way. The Director General
indicated the report would be presented at the next Finance and Audit
Committee meeting on 12 September 2018.
That the Ottawa
Police Services Board receive this report for information.
RECEIVED
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14.
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WORKFORCE
MANAGEMENT REPORT: FIRST QUARTER 2018
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Chief’s report
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That the Ottawa
Police Services Board receive this report for information.
RECEIVED
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15.
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Executive Director’s report
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That the Ottawa
Police Services Board receive this report for information.
RECEIVED
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16.
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Chief’s report
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That the Ottawa
Police Services Board receive this report for information.
RECEIVED
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OTHER BUSINESS
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CONSIDERATION OF MOTION TO MOVE IN
CAMERA
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Moved
by L.A. Smallwood
That the Ottawa
Police Services Board adjourn the public portion of its meeting to move In
Camera to discuss confidential items pertaining to legal and personnel
matters in accordance with Section 35(4)(b) of the Police Services Act.
CARRIED
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ADJOURNMENT
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The meeting adjourned at 6:40 p.m.
(original signed by) (original
signed by)
____________________________ _____________________________
Krista Ferraro E.
El-Chantiry
Executive Director Chair
Document 1 – Lucie Marleau, Crime Prevention Vanier
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Thank
you for the opportunity to provide my comments on the Service Initiative
Implementation Community Advisory Group.
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My
name is Lucie Marleau. I’m the founder of Crime Prevention Vanier and the
NWProgram Volunteer Coordinator for Vanier.
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My
main motivation for participating if the CAG was to advocate for neighbourhood
policing – and please notice that I use ‘neighbourhood’ as oppose to
‘community’ policing given that OPS has a very broad definition of ‘community’
- which includes health and hospital services, and the LGBTQ and Islamic
groups, CDF and other interest groups. Areas who’s OPS needs differ from
neighbourhoods.
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Being
a member of CAG was quite an investment of my volunteer time! - dozens upon
dozens of hours for sure.
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It’s
worth noting that the majority of the members of the CAG were paid staff.
Those of us representing neighbourhoods were volunteers.
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In
retrospect, and should OPS undertake a similar exercise in the future, I would
strongly recommend that the consultations start earlier and be divided into
like-minded groups that require similar services from OPS.
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I’m
slightly ashamed to say that 90% of the content of 1.5 yrs of meetings was way
beyond my ability to comprehend – let alone share what I was hearing with my
fellow crime fighters in Vanier.
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A
lesson learned I’d suggest moving forward is in the future, ensure that the
information provided is digestible and easily transferable to the broader
community. Had someone asked me to summarize a meeting, I would not have been
able to.
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I read
the report very carefully and I believe there is a false statement on p. 5 “SIICAG
members believed their participation was…instrumental…”. I think it’s
presumptuous to state what members ‘believed’ & I do not recall being asked
that question so I challenge that assertion. As well, I do not recall feeling
like CAG made “significant contributions to selecting Overbrook and Lowertown
to implement the first Formalized Community Networks neighbourhoods” as
indicated on p. 6.
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As I
stated, my main objective in participating was to look out for the interests of
neighbourhood policing and to that end, there were some success:
o The extension of tenure durations for
Community Police Officers;
o the transfer of knowledge between the
departing CPOfficer and his/her replacement – though this last gain is NOT
mentioned in the SI Close Out Report.
o And the Formalized Community Network
or FCN
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Being
a safety and crime prevention advocate in Vanier, I was particularly keen to be
involved in the FCN but we were not consulted on what it would entail and how
it would be implemented. I think I would have been a useful contributor to its
development and roll-out plan.
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I have
one uneasy feeling about the FCN. I find it somewhat disingenuous of the OPS
to implement this project after the SI resulted in the elimination of our
Neighbourhood Officer positions and 5 of the 15 CPOfficer positions which meant
the expansion of the catchment area of the remaining 10 CPOfficers. In the
case of Vanier, our CPO took on an additional 3 neighbourhoods. It feels to me
like OPS in transferring some of the responsibility of neighbourhood policing
to the residents to do for themselves – though I have no doubt that OPS views
this as ‘pro-active’ policing.
·
If
your refer to the Engagement and Planning Framework of the FCN, it speaks of
establishing neighbourhood profiles, crime data, identifying stakeholders,
engagement plan, roles/responsibilities, Terms of Reference, objectives,
reporting & tracking, joint action plan, and monitoring to name a few items
in the FCN.
·
That
is a lot for a community to commit to and very procedural which is not always a
good fit to the more organic way neighbourhoods implement community safety
projects.
·
To the
best of my understanding, there is no funding or additional resources allocated
to neighbourhoods to effectively undertake such a project.
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I
reiterate my concerns that OPS is somehow trying to ‘arm’ neighbourhoods to do
its own policing as a result of OPS’s decision to reduce its support of
neighbourhood policing.
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At the
very least, the FCN should have been developed & implemented BEFORE the
elimination of the CPO positions & new OPS service delivery model so that
the FCN had been implemented, improved, refined, and rolled out to
neighbourhoods thereby preparing them for the advent of the SI.
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The
online reporting tools is not working well and I am still hearing from
residents that their verbal reports to 236-1222 are not being taken and they
are being told that their reports MUST be reported on-line. This despite me
being told repeatedly by OPS (and informing members of the NWProgram) that
verbal calls will be taken – as I was told at SIICAG meetings & at the
recent Crime Prevention Ottawa Speakers Series on Reporting. The latest
example: A resident witnessed a drug exchange ‘live’ in the Burger King
parking lot and called OPS. The OPS would NOT take the report on the phone. Reporting
a ‘live’ crime online is ridiculous!
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The
online tools does not allow for anonymous reporting so I know of many who are
reporting to Crime Stoppers instead – reporting is also much simpler using the
CSO process.
·
Lastly,
I would like to give credit to the GAC process for connecting me with other
neighbourhoods – meaning Hintonburg and Lowertown - when it might not have
happened otherwise. I’m happy to consider Cheryl and Thierry my
comrades-in-arm and for that, I am grateful.
·
Thank
you.
Document 2 - Cheryl Parrot, Security
Committee
COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION INC · ASSOCIATION COMMUNAUTAIRE INC
1064 RUE WELLINGTON ST · OTTAWA, ONTARIO, K1Y 2Y3
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Understand
new additional changes that will be implemented.
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Have
input on procedures to improve them if they do not seem to be working for the
community
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Reduce
confusion on how to report – 911, verbal, on-line
Evaluation:
Document 3 – Mr. Thierry
Harris
Bonjour mon nom et Thierry
Harris et je suis ici aujourd’hui en tant que membre de la communauté habitant
la Basse-Ville et représentant au SIICAG pour l’association des fédérations
citoyennes d’Ottawa. Merci de nous accueillir aujourd’hui afin de vous offrir
mes pensées sur le déroulement du Groupe Consultatif Communautaire du Service
de Police d’Ottawa. Je tiens à tenir mon discours dans les deux langues officiels
notre capitale nationale.
J’aimerais remercier tous
les membres du service de police de la Ville d’Ottawa qui nous ont accueilli
chaleureusement pendant des mois afin de travailler sur des dossiers en
collaboration avec non seulement des membres du service mais d’autres
organizations de la communauté. Je pense que c’est important de les mentionner
car ils ont tous de leur manière apporté un point de vue unique vis à vis les
enjeux auxquels font face notre service de police ainsi que ceux de la
communautée.
L’apprentissage de manière
horizontal et le réseau de confiance qui s’est formé entre les groupes
communautaires autour de la table du SIICAG est à mon avis aussi importante que
l’apprentissage vertical ou top down fait du service de police à la
communautée. Je me suis personnellement fait des nouveaux amis qui sont ici
avec moi aujourd’hui et dans quelques annés lorsqu’on regardera en arrière on pourra
se dire, on s’est rencontré entouré par la police et nous nous sommes jamais
senti aussi en sécurité :)
J’aimerais aussi souligner
l’important travail de Jane Wright qui a participé à toutes les rencontres et
qui a fait en sorte que nous nous sommes retrouvés avec les bon dossiers au bon
moment durant la durée du SIICAG. Your professionalism was exemplary and I
think it is important to extend this compliment to the entire police staff who
worked on the CAG for its duration over the months. We had a lot of questions
and you were always ready to answer them so I thank you for that, and I am
certain so does the rest of the community organizations and individuals members
participating in the CAG.
As a member of the
Federation of Citizens Associations of Ottawa, I joined the SIICAG group in
December of 2016. We had just completed a safety and security survey at the FCA
and had the pleasure of welcoming Deputy Chief Jill Skinner to our meeting that
day to let us know about the new SI and its impact on communities. At my first
December 2016 SIICAG meeting we had a breakout session during which in smaller
groups we tackled some of the communication challenges the police were having
in reaching community associations. I found that first meeting to be the best
one I had the pleasure of attending. And here is where I will go into what I
believe are the challenges the CAG group should address moving forward. Please
understand I am mentioning these from a point of view of absolute respect for
everyone involved. I realise this was a first kick at the can.
However, if the goal is to
improve then let me humbly offer you my remarks on how exactly the roll out of
CAG took place from my perspective. In terms of improvements: a) Clearly you
need to distinguish between the operational and advisory capacity of the CAG.
This wasn't made clear and much time was wasted with miscommunications on this
front. If you give a community an operational say by appointing them to
decision making boards it would go a long way towards inclusivity and providing
accessibility to decision making bodies that impact the quality of life in
communities. b) During the CAG meetings if as much work was done summarizing
the concerns and polling the community to identify pain points as was in explaining
abstract bureaucratic concepts we could have got twice as
much work done. c)
Simply understanding the power structures of who does what, and when issues
came to head (such as sanctuary city, the OPO crisis or community police
officers) being able to act on them in an operational capacity on the CAG and
would have been a much better use of people's time. We spent a lot of time
understanding the big transition and were asked to sell this to communities but
the results and effectiveness of this pitch was questionable. d) The CAG
meetings were far from consistent depending on what needed to be discussed. We
never really got a sense of moving the needle forward after the initial
meetings which I thought were tremendously well run in more of a workshop
format. e) By having so many different stakeholders around the table, we had a hard
time identifying roles and responsibilities of each. That role definition could
have been made clear upfront and should have been underlined at the beginning
of each meeting. Instead we got a lot of 'death by power point' and many of us
left meetings scratching our heads as to what real direction we were going.
In terms of next steps
what I would like to see and what I believe many community groups would like to
see, are concrete evaluation points on your measures of success for groups such
as this moving forward. What are you doing to evaluate yourselves and what are
those measures of success? How do you transparently feed this back to the Police
Services Board and the community to build best practices and become a more
effective group as a whole? To build trust with the community you need to trust
the community and encourage us engage with you on a higher level than what is
currently being done. Just because this is a long term perpetual goal doesn’t mean
we cannot remind ourselves of it every day we go to work and stand in service
of the community. In terms of another concrete suggestion of improving things
next time I suggest perhaps a primer course might be developed, similar to that
done for planning issues on how the police service operates. This will allow
more community members to participate in that process who will then be able to
work on a new CAG, if there is a plan to have one in the future.
So those are my remarks
and I’ll just leave you with this quote from Carl Shurz, a former American
civil war veteran who went on to become a prominent advocate of civil service
reform : Ideals are like the stars: we never reach them, but like the
mariners of the sea, we chart our course by them. Thanks again for listening
and for all the work you do for the community.
COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION INC · ASSOCIATION COMMUNAUTAIRE INC
1064 RUE WELLINGTON ST · OTTAWA, ONTARIO, K1Y 2Y3
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Understand
new additional changes that will be implemented.
-
Have
input on procedures to improve them if they do not seem to be working for the
community
-
Reduce
confusion on how to report – 911, verbal, on-line
Evaluation: