A PROCESS REVIEW OF THE OUTREACH RECRUITMENT PROCESS With THE OUTREACH RECRUITING TEAM

November 2007

December 3rd, 2007 Chief Vern White, Ottawa Police Service Ottawa, Ontario

Chief, On September 12, 2007, you requested that I form a team for purposes of conducting a Process Review.

I selected the members of this team for various specific reasons. The first is that I believe each of them to be highly credible, respected, ethical and aware of issues within the organization. I also intentionally sought them out because they did not have any substantive experience in how the recruitment process actually worked. I believed that this inexperience would lead them to ask the questions that needed to be asked and to probe for the explanations that needed to be obtained. I believe that this report will validate the logic and reasoning I used in the selection of this team and will truly reflect the quality of their work.

I thank Superintendent Gilles Larochelle and his staff for releasing Constable Nathan Hoedeman from his regular duties as Community Centre officer, and also thank Superintendent Crosby and his staff for the release of Sergeant Jeff Webster from his regular duties in Partner Assault and Constable Garth Faubert from his regular duties in Guns and Gangs.

I also thank Director General Debra Frazer for releasing me from my regular duties at the Professional Development Centre and Staff Sergeant Shaun Brabazon for stepping into my shoes during this period of time.

On behalf of the Team, I would also like to thank everyone who took the time to share his or her thoughts, experiences, concerns and support for this Process Review.

We trust that the Process Review Report we submit to you will assist the Organization in moving forward with its implementation of the Outreach Recruitment Project objectives, many of which go far beyond recruitment alone. Respectfully,

S./Sgt. Sylvio Gravel

Sgt. Jeff Webster

Cst. Nathan Hoedeman

Cst.Garth Faubert

TABLE OF CONTENTS THE PROCESS REVIEW TEAM: Composition of the Team & Terms of Reference Mandate & Process EXECUTIVE SUMMARY QUALITY ASSURANCE DEFINED Employee Concerns Training WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Point #1 Structure Point #2 Chain of Command Point #3 Communications Point #4 Task Point #5 The Plan versus Approved Action Overview Recommendations PROCESS REVIEW Background WHAT WE FOUND Structure Objectives of the Outreach Recruitment Project The Outreach Recruiting Team and Their Ideal Role The Outreach Recruiting Team - Assets The Interviewers The Shift from Weeding-out to Obtaining Information Past the Interviewers and Looking at the Interview Process The Repeated Example We Still Dont Understand the Difference between Equality and Equity Is this not Reverse Discrimination? The Background Investigators The Resourcing Unit The Community The Recruits The Outreach Recruiting Team The MMPI-2 and our Constable Selection System Certified Psychologists The Outreach Recruiting Team Liabilities / Concerns Understanding the Mandate Page 21 Page 21 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 27 Page 27 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 33 Page 33 Page 35 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 17 Page 6 Page 6 Page 6 Page 6 Page 6 Page 7 Page 7 Page 8 Page 8 Page 10 Page 12 Page 4 Page 5

The Final Selection Conclusion

Page 43 Page 46

APPENDIX A Process Review Preamble and Questions APPENDIX B The Constable Selection System Process Flow Chart APPENDIX C Letter from Dr. Monteiro APPENDIX D Outreach Recruitment Project Goals and Objectives & Recommendations APPENDIX E Internal Focus Group Final Report APPENDIX F Testing or Recruiting Where Should the Emphasis Be? APPENDIX G Red Flag APPENDIX H June 2005 Chiefs Verbal Report to the Board Introduction of Outreach Recruitment Champions APPENDIX I Media Clips

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THE PROCESS REVIEW TEAM COMPOSITION OF THE TEAM

Team Lead - Staff Sergeant Sylvio (Syd) A. Gravel Sergeant Jeff Webster Constable Garth Faubert Constable Nathan Hoedeman Executive Lead - Deputy Chief Larry Hill.

TERMS OF REFERENCE
Background The Ottawa Police Service is committed to having a workforce that reflects the community it serves. To achieve this, the Outreach Recruitment Project was established in 2003 to look at ways to recruit and retain the most qualified people while addressing the need for diversity. Not only diversity as it relates to what is visible (e.g. skin colour, language ability and gender), but also as it refers to what is not visible (e.g. sexual orientation, knowledge of other cultures or religious beliefs). The Outreach Recruitment Project was meant to open doors for people who may not have considered a career with the Ottawa Police who can bring those various assets to the Organization.

The Outreach Recruiting Team was launched in 2006, with police employees who had skill sets to recruit from our diverse community. The objective of the Outreach Recruiting Team is to focus on identifying individuals from the communities of visible minorities, aboriginals, women, gays, lesbians, bi-sexual and trans-gendered who are suitable for and interested in a policing career, encouraging them to apply and supporting them throughout the recruitment process and once they are hired.

Almost one year into the program the Outreach Recruiting Team, in cooperation and with extensive support from the Resourcing Unit has succeeded in recruiting 25 new officers of diverse backgrounds.

In project management it is a responsible practice to review new programs at key stages to ensure that they are properly structured and supported to meet organizational objectives. Therefore, questions need to be asked that would be beneficial in identifying any real issues that may exist with the Outreach Recruiting

Teams role and its impact on the recruitment process as well as identifying areas of true value to the organization in attaining its recruitment goals.

On September 12, 2007 Chief Vernon White requested that a Process Review be undertaken for that purpose and on September 24, 2007 a team was formed to do so. The evaluation will focus on quality assurance with respect to the injection of the Outreach Recruiting Team within the entire recruitment process.

MANDATE
The Process Review Team has been given the mandate to review aspects of the Outreach Recruiting Team role and its activities within the Constable Selection System to: 1. 2. Determine where the Recruiting Teams role adds value to the overall process; Determine if there are issues about the Outreach Recruiting Teams role;

3. Develop recommendations addressing these issues.

PROCESS
The Team will conduct its review using the following approach: 1. Solicit input, through personal interviews and other means, from individuals directly involved in the recruitment process, including: Outreach Recruiting Team members, background investigators, interviewers, psychiatrists, Resourcing Unit staff, Executive and new recruits. The team will determine whether consultation within each role will involve all participants or a representative sampling. Consultation will focus on: a. b. Participants understanding of their specific roles in the recruitment process; Participants understanding of the role of the Outreach Recruiting team as it relates to their specific role. 2. Analyze the findings of the consultations and, with in-depth knowledge of the Constable Selection System and the goals of the Outreach Recruitment Program, identify any benefits, added value, conflicts or gaps between these and the delivery of the various functions of the Outreach Recruiting Team; 3. Compile findings and make recommendations on ways to address any identified gaps, conflicts and to promote areas where direct value is shown. 4. The team will complete its review and submit its recommendations to the Chief by November 30, 2007.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Process Review Team reviewed the performance of the Outreach Recruiting Team and the Resourcing Unit both working within the Constable Selection System Process, in addressing the objectives of the Outreach Recruitment Project. This report is not about reviewing past candidates files, nor about determining whether there should be an Outreach Recruiting Team or not, but about how well the process works for the members involved. The review will focus on quality assurance.

QUALITY ASSURANCE DEFINED The quality journey is based on the belief that in order to achieve consistency in meeting a requirement, there must be a plan and it must be followed. Some quality initiatives fail because an assumption is made that the basic foundation is in place. When this is done then the cart has been placed before the horse. In the quality journey, the sequence is important.

Employee Concerns When a company starts an initiative, employees are often concerned about what is being measured and how they fit into the plan. Keeping communication open with all personnel in a respectful manner is crucial to ensure effectiveness.

Training People doing their work through the initiatives being introduced into their sections need to be trained to be aware of what will be expected of them. They may need to be coached through the process of change to ensure buy-in and a willingness to support from the ground level. All employees need to be advised about the objectives and plan of the changes that are about to occur. Managers must initiate problem solving and information sharing techniques to work with their staff members. As well, employees need to be encouraged to work within the section with other members of staff by participating in effective brainstorming and problem solving sessions as they move through the change process. 1

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW There are five points that are foundations pieces of information for this process review.

Point #1 Structure There are two distinct and separate groups involved in this review. The first is the Outreach Recruiting Team, a temporary staff of five full time members, managed by an Inspector.

1 With reference to: http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/stco-levc.nsf/en/qw00045e.html#18

The second is the Resourcing Unit, managed by a Staff Sergeant which includes, for purposes of recruiting sworn members, two full time members, fifty-six duty-permitting interviewers, twenty-one part-time backgrounders and a managed working relationship with intelligence, records, two Constable Selection System Certified psychologists and one Constable Selection System Certified medical doctor and finally the Professional Development Centre.

Point #2 Chain of Command There is an unusual chain of command or reporting structure that is in place for these two groups. The Staff Sergeant in charge of the Resourcing Unit reports to the Director of Human Resources. The Inspector in charge of the Outreach Recruiting Team reports to the Director General, as does the Director of Human Resources. The Inspector is given the mandate to speed up the Recruitment Process including reviewing how steps are administered under the Constable Selection System which are managed and the responsibility of the Staff Sergeant and his Resourcing Unit, neither of whom reports to the Inspector.

The end result of such a chain of command is an Inspector trying to direct the activities of a large group of people, all of who do not report to him and a Staff Sergeant receiving direction from an Inspector he does not work for.

Point #3 Communications The Outreach Recruitment Project had been in place since 2003 and almost everything researched and implemented was well communicated throughout the organization over the past four years. It was assumed and expected that everyone involved, especially those in the recruitment process, would be aware that there were going to be adjustments required in order to speed up the process and meet our organizational objectives of becoming more diverse and a policing employer of choice for all.

It was also assumed that everyone involved clearly understood that not everything that would be tried would indeed work well and that everyone working together would adjust accordingly.

It was also assumed that everyone involved clearly understood that there were no sacred-cows as to how business had been done in the past within the recruitment process. Every step of the recruitment process was open for discussion and challenge in order to speed the recruitment process along and meet our organizational goals of having a police service that would reflect the diversity of the community.

At the same time, it was made clear that no rules would be broken, that the standards for hiring candidates were not to be changed or lowered. Minor glitches were expected along the way but people were expected to work together to make things happen.

It was also assumed that everyone involved would be brought into the loop if they werent already.

These were all good assumptions, but it didnt appear to be the reality for most people involved, especially the majority of the people involved on the Resourcing Unit side. It was however more the reality for those assigned to and working on the Outreach Recruiting Team side.

Point #4 Task There are a number of tasks assigned to the Outreach Recruiting Team but there is one in particular that caused some concern between the two groups. This newly formed team had also been assigned the task of leading changes in the way the recruitment process works under the Constable Selection System model in order to speed things along.

However, none of the members of this newly formed team has any training, experience or certification under the Constable Selection System or in recruitment or in the Human Resources, except for two certified interviewers, one of whom has not conducted an interview for over two years.

The Ottawa Police Service has designed its entire Resourcing Unit to work within the infrastructure of the Constable Selection System model since 1997 and for everyone working there, it was simply the way they did the business of processing applicants into the process of recruitment.

Point #5 The Plan versus Approved Action In essence, what we were supposed to find based on the Executive approved process on April 30th, 2007 was that the Outreach Recruiting Team had the primary accountability to identify, contact, engage and qualify candidates for the recruiting process. The Resourcing Unit was to process only those candidates who were identified by the Outreach Recruiting Team.

The Resourcing Unit had the primary accountability for managing and implementing the local focus interview, pre-background questionnaire, fingerprints, essential competency interview, records check, intelligence check, background investigation, psychological testing - both written and interview stages. They would also hold a supportive role in selecting candidates for final job offer and preparing the Ottawa Police Service Senior Officer candidate review and job offer letters.

Throughout the steps of the process in which the Resourcing Unit would have the primary accountability to manage, the Outreach Recruiting Team would be expected to continue to mentor the candidates as required.

OPS - Proposed Roles in CSS Process

Recruiting Outreach Team

Primary Accountability Key Contributor

Process Steps
Identify Contact Engage Qualify OPS Screening Local Focused Interview and PBQ Fingerprints Essential Competency Interview Records Intelligence Background Investigation Psych Written Psych Interview Final File Review OPS senior review & offer letter
(Revise final review process)

Resourcing Section

Candidate Recruitment

Mentoring

Review Process
Before Proposed

Resourcing Section

Recruiting Outreach Team

Full accountability & control

Resourcing Section

File review File review

Sergeant Staff Sergeant Staff Sergeant Dir HR Chief

Inspector Recruiting Team

Superintendents
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What we found in reality however was an Outreach Recruiting Team screening all candidate applications, conducting Local Focus Interviews and Pre-Background Questionnaires. They were also involved in reviewing their candidates files after they were interviewed, background investigated and interviewed by the Service psychologists and taking the majority role in recommending to the Superintendents who should or should not be hired at the end of the process. They took the lead in re-examining how the Resourcing Unit managed the Constable Selection System and requested changes where they saw it necessary to speed up the recruitment process.

The Outreach Recruiting Team also had a mandate to hire classes of a minimum of 33% females; a minimum of 33% visible minorities and up to 33% white males, with no top limits to the females and visible minority groups. All of this was to be accomplished within one year.

Though we understand the objective of the mandate, we are concerned that it is structured to potentially eliminate or exclude one specific group, the traditional white male. Nor did we see anything wrong with what was approved by the Executive on April 30th, 2007. What we heard as a problem for the members involved was with the difference between what was approved and what was being done.

The Outreach Recruiting Team worked with what was both approved and planned. The Resourcing Unit worked with what was approved and didnt appear to be aware of what was planned.

This gap ultimately proved to be the source of most issues that we identify. Understanding these five points will go a long way at understanding why we recommend what we do. Overview Over 60 people were interviewed. The participants were drawn from all ranks and from various sections, both sworn and civilian, community members, government and other police services. They represented a wide range of diversity and perspectives. The years of experience in employment with the Ottawa Police Service, both sworn and civilian, ranged from 2.5 to 34 years and the years working within the Constable Selection System ranged from .5 to 11 years, with most participants having an average of 3 years of experience. Each participant was either asked 19 questions or was asked to clarify a point in which their area of personal knowledge would help clarify an issue as they arose in previous questioning. 2 We used a different set of questions for recruits as most original questions were irrelevant to them. 3

2 Appendix A Preamble and Questions

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Our report will identify that there is a general agreement as to the objectives of the Outreach Recruitment Project, the asset value of having an Outreach Recruiting Team and what it is that they should be able to accomplish but there was disagreement expressed as to how they were going about their business. No one objected to the need of an Outreach Recruiting Team. We also found that the past ten months or so has been a very difficult period of time for most members involved. For those working as interviewers, backgrounders, and Resourcing Unit members the difficulties they incurred are directly linked to our third point of assumptions being made as to who knew or agreed to what. They indicated to us that they felt totally out of the loop and only blindly participating in a change that they didnt understand or agree to and were being directed under the command of someone they did not work for. They latched onto a belief that they would only have to tolerate these adjustments for only one year and that after that; things would go back to normal. Meanwhile, they took the position that it was important for most of them to entrench themselves as gatekeepers of the process and in doing so they closed ranks. It was also difficult for the new Outreach Recruiting Team members. They clearly understood the task assigned to them according to the Plan and yet they felt that they were forever having to fight for the information they needed to get their job done, to fight to get their identified candidates processed, and to defend themselves constantly to do a job they were tasked with doing. They were also being blamed for all the bad hires that had occurred over the past three years even though they had only just started their work and hadnt had a hand in hiring anyone yet. It was alleged that they were cheating, manipulating, bullying, threatening, and even stealing information to get their candidates through. They couldnt understand how so many people, especially members working within the recruitment process itself, were starting so many rumours about them when they were only trying to help make the organization meet its goals and follow the objectives of the Outreach Recruitment Project as directed by the Chief and his Executive. To protect themselves they closed ranks. It is not clear anywhere throughout our review if anyone from either group made genuine attempts to meet with each other to talk things through, with the exception of a number of one-on-one discussions if members of the two groups happened to cross paths. Both sides have examples of e-mails going out to each other asking for meetings or offering open invitations for further discussion about how to work together but nothing organized formally was offered.

All the issues boiled down to work being done by two different groups, working from two different perspectives to reach the same goals. There were too many assumptions as to who knew what, a confusing

3 Appendix A Recruit Questionnaire

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chain of command along with unclear assignments and a lack of experience in working in a long entrenched rules bound process. And finally a disagreement as to what was actually approved for action.

RECOMMENDATIONS We offer the following recommendations to address these issues:

1.

A Plan has to be in place for all to see. The mandate and working relationships, roles and responsibilities, workflow processes including links and reporting structure between the Outreach Recruiting Team and everyone else already involved in the recruitment process needs to be plainly spelled out. Flexibility can be built into the Plan if required and best practices from police or private organizations and existing internal research should be referred to in this plan. There is no need to stop the existing work while this Plan is being developed. The Plan should be built with the assistance of members presently involved within the recruitment process so that at the end there will be credibility and buy-in by the membership.

2.

The Executive must approve the Plan. The work that follows must match what the Executive approves. If adjustments are required as the Plan moves along, then an approved working process must be in place to address those areas of adjustment.

3.

The Chief must champion and communicate the Plan to the entire Organization as this is an organizational shift that is being initiated and it must be seen as endorsed, without doubt, by the Chief of the organization and his Executive Command.

4.

Everyone working in the sections affected must have the details of the Plan communicated to them in a facilitated environment so that they can clearly understand who will be doing what, when, where and how. They must also be given an opportunity to discuss their concerns so that these can be alleviated at the onset of the Plan. Everyone means: the five full time members of the Outreach Recruiting Team, the two full time members of the Resourcing Unit, the fifty-six duty-permitting interviewers, the twenty-one part-time backgrounders and the psychologists and finally the Staff Sergeant of the Professional Development Centre, who inherits the new hires.

5.

The chain of command or reporting structure put in place within Human Resources in the correlation of the Outreach Recruiting Team and the Resourcing Unit needs to be re-visited, clearly defined and workable.

6.

A respectful workplace environment must be properly managed, maintained and championed when putting staff through any change process within the Ottawa Police Service.

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7.

The investment of an Inspector rank in charge of a Sergeant and a four member recruiting team doing outreach within the community needs to be re-visited and substantiated.

8.

Any member put in charge of changing any existing process within the Ottawa Police Service should, at the very least, have certification, training, professional experience and at a minimum consult with an expert in that field in how that process already works, why it works the way it does and what the consequences are of creating change with that process.

9.

As per Recommendation #1, the number of full time staff working in the Resourcing Unit must be re-visited and adjusted accordingly. At present, there is only one full time civilian doing what was the work of two constables, one sergeant and one civilian staff member.

10. Any member who is or has been a certified interviewer or backgrounder under the Constable Selection System can be allowed to be a member of the Outreach Recruiting Team, however they can no longer actively participate in doing Essential Competency Interviews or Background Investigations.

11. A Code of Behaviour defining what behaviour is allowed or not in the professional relationships between recruiters, resourcing unit staff, interviewers, backgrounders and candidates or potential candidates should be developed. The Code of Behaviour should be a part of a members introduction into the Recruitment Process.

12. Rules must be developed, along with consequences, around the appropriate conduct within the process to protect the integrity and confidentiality of the candidates files. Questions must be answered and appropriate conduct agreed to as to: a. b. c. Who has the right to access the confidential files and at what stages throughout the process? Who can do what with the information in those confidential files? Who can share information from those files and with whom?

13. The use of the present Essential Competency Interview should be re-visited and it must be determined if the Ottawa Police Service will continue to use it as part of its recruitment process.

14. Should the Essential Competency Interview be retained then all Interviewers must be re-trained. This training should clearly address the distinction between candidate selection and obtaining information for validation purposes for the background investigation.

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15. If the Ottawa Police Service determines that it will continue to use the Essential Competency Interview then all examples given by a candidate through the Essential Competency Interview must be validated.

16. If the Ottawa Police Service determines that it will continue to use the Essential Competency Interview then interviewers, in collaboration with the Staff Sergeant in charge of the Resourcing Unit, must regularly review the examples being given by candidates in response to the interviewers questions. If an example of a competency is being used excessively by candidates and it is apparent that the use of this example is bringing the credibility of our process into disrepute then it should be decided to not accept that particular example when presented by a candidate. Also, if the example used is so generic as to not be unique to their own personal experience and it is apparent that the use of this example is bringing the credibility of our process into disrepute then it should be decided to not accept that particular example when presented by a candidate.

17. If the Ottawa Police Service determines that it will continue to use the Essential Competency Interview then the entire working relationship between the interviewers and the background investigators must be re-visited and adjusted accordingly. Many interviewers indicated that they are rarely contacted for further information or clarification by background investigators. If the focus of the interviews is to switch from weeding-people-out to obtaining-information-forvalidation-purposes, then there has to be stronger partnerships and discussions between interviewers and backgrounders about candidates.

18. The routing and review process to recommend candidates for final approvals must include checks and balances. As one example of how this could be done, we recommend the following manner: a) The final recommendation of candidates should be proposed through a case conference involving the Staff Sergeant in charge of the Resourcing Unit as the lead and a select number of staff from the Outreach Recruiting Team and the Resourcing Unit. b) After the case conference, once candidates are identified, then the involved background investigators, interviewers, recruiters or champions should also be consulted for what further information they can share with the Staff Sergeant. c) If there are issues about the candidate to be addressed then these must be addressed before it is moved forward. d) If the issues cannot be addressed then the Staff Sergeant will meet with the Inspector to bring them into the loop as to what the issues are and receive direction to proceed or not. e) If the candidate has a rock-solid file then the file is simply reviewed, signed off by the Staff Sergeant who turns it over to the Inspector.

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f)

If the candidates issues are addressed then the file is brought to the Inspector with a note that there were issues that had to be addressed in order to bring the file forward. The Inspector will review the issues to be personally satisfied to move the file forward or not.

g) If the candidate has a rock-solid file then the Inspector can provide the Superintendents with a simple voice-over candidate profile so that the Superintendents are aware of whom the candidate is. This can be done by e-mail. h) If there were issues with the file that have been addressed and the candidate is now being recommended for hire, the Inspector then brings the file along with an attached voiceover candidate profile to a case conference with the Superintendents. If the Superintendents chose to read past the voice-over profile, then the file is there for them to see. If the Superintendents have any questions about the issues they wished clarified then the Inspector and, if need be, the Staff Sergeant can respond accordingly before the Superintendents sign off.

19. The Outreach Recruiting Team should be made a permanent section within the Ottawa Police Service with its mandate and working relationships, roles and responsibilities, workflow processes including links and reporting structure reviewed every five years. This will ensure that their mandate will remain current with demographic changes within the community. They are a solution to a situation and strongly supported both internally and externally.

20. Identify a working committee to review the continued use or not of the Constable Selection System in its entirety. There are many police services, which do not use all or some of the existing Constable Selection System. In addressing our recruiting needs the Ottawa Police Service should not try to fit their needs to the recruiting process, but rather find and fit the process to meet their needs.

21. Both the Resourcing Unit and the Outreach Recruiting Team should be working out of the same office at the same location, planning their approach together and working as a team, as one unit, to achieve the same goal.

22. There must be annual statistical reports showing data that reflects the work of the Outreach Recruiting Team and the Resourcing unit. The data to be captured must be determined by the Executive.

23. Review the continued use of the MMPI-2 as the single source test for candidates. It is advisable to include an additional objective test to ensure that all candidates are given an opportunity to present not just a flavour of their personality but also traits that are necessary to perform the job. It is imperative that candidates of various ethnic groups are no longer exposed to a potential disadvantage of a

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single test especially when that test may be amplifying culturally normative behaviours to be pathological. They need to be provided with the opportunity to present themselves beyond profile obtained from the current test (MMPI-2) and offer a more rounded picture of their psychological competencies. Whereas the MMPI-2 is the mandated test, there is certainly no restriction in including an additional test which would facilitate an understanding and clarification of any questionable profiles whether they are the result of ethnic or other issues. We recommend that the Ottawa Police Service seek the advice of its Service Psychologists for this task.

Our review of the process and the issues identified has been presented to you along with our recommendations in summary. The following section reveals supportive evidence for each of the issues presented to us, and the reasons for our recommendations.

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PROCESS REVIEW

Background The Resourcing Unit in Human Resources was entrenched within a rules-bound process known as the Constable Selection Process. 4 On December 21st, 1998, Chief Brian Ford of the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Police Service entered into a contractual agreement, supported by the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Police Services Board, with the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police to license the use of the Constable Selection System by the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Police. Chief Vince Bevan extended this agreement on January 22nd, 2004 at the request of Christine Roy, Director of Human Resources, with copies submitted to Debra Frazer, Director General and Staff Sergeant Paul Gallant.

This Agreement refers to the Board, which was the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Police Service and is now the Ottawa Police Service.

It also refers to Tools, which are all the documents provided to the Board by the Ministry.

The Agreement, in parts, requires: 1. The Board shall safeguard the security of the Tools in its handling and storage of them. (Sec. 1.3(f)) 2. The Board acknowledges that training will be required to enable staff to use the Tools appropriately and effectively. (Sec.1.6). 3. The Board acknowledges that the accuracy of the Tools is dependent upon strict compliance with the instructions for the use of the Tools and hereby undertakes to comply with those instructions. (Sec. 1.7). 4. Under no circumstances shall any candidate for the position of police constable be allowed to remove a copy of the Tools from the Boards facilities. (Sec 8.5) 5. The Board shall limit access to the Tools to those persons who are trained to use the Tools, and shall not use the Tools in any manner, which compromises their security. (Sec 8.6)

In the preface to the OACP Constable Selection System Course Descriptions it states: Authorization to administer and evaluate the Tools within the process requires specific Constable Selection System (CSS) training/certification and/or recertification. 4 Appendix B -Constable Selection System flowchart

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Quality Assurance Reviews under the Constable Selection System are required annually and the last one was done in May, 2007 in response to a request made in April 2007 by the Ministry that indicates in part:

1.

A protocol is maintained that restricts access to the documents (tools) to qualified /appropriate individuals. This protocol should contain documentation on who has access to the tools/when taken/when returned.

2.

A protocol is established that maintains all the current tools under one cover. This area must be secure and available to all trained personnel who wish access to it.

Members of the Resourcing Unit, interviewers, backgrounders, psychologists and our service medical doctor were all trained by people contracted to the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police to introduce people to the inner workings of the Constable Selection System.

We point out some of these rules and sections of agreement to help establish the mind-set entrenched within the Resourcing Units environment.

Meanwhile as a result of both community and internal reviews of the existing recruiting process using the Constable Selection System, recommendations were made to Human Resources, through its Resourcing Unit to identify means by which the recruiting process could be streamlined so that the Ottawa Police Service could be more timely and competitive in recruiting candidates. 5

As a result of the Outreach Recruitment Project, objectives were identified to establish a full time recruiting team whose tasks would be to accomplish: Creating a pool of candidates, specifically from communities who would normally not think of policing as a career option and identified mainly to be visible minorities, women, aboriginals and members of the GLBT communities.

Support the candidates not only into the recruiting process but also through it and post hire. 6

Prior to January of 2007, members of the Resourcing Unit met with and trained members of the Outreach Recruiting Team on how to administer a Local Focus Interview and what to look for to ensure that a file could proceed into the recruitment process. A Power point presentation entitled, Ottawa Police Service 2007 Recruiting Campaign, December 2006 Report, indicates a concern that Outreach Recruiting Team members were tied up conducting Local Focus Interviews with little to no result in identifying candidates 5 February, 2005 - Community - January 2006 -Member Review of the Constable Selection System, Findings and Recommendations and Detailed Response, Facilitated by Staff Sergeant Paul Gallant and Sergeant Cori Slaughter 6 Appendix G Red Flag

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from the target groups from the number of applications being received electronically through Human Resources. In fact out of 40 applications only 2 were female. This meant that the pool of candidates available to the Outreach Recruiting Team using the traditional way of attracting candidates to meet our Outreach Recruitment Project targets of diversity were not being met. 7 On March 8th, 2007 preliminary discussions were held to plan the roles and responsibilities of the Resourcing Unit and Recruitment Team. At this meeting it was agreed:

1.

That the Outreach Recruiting Team should be responsible for all candidate recruitment and screening.

2.

That the Outreach Recruiting Team should be the only source of applicants entering the Constable Selection System process.

3.

That the Inspector of the Outreach Recruiting Team should assume responsibility for the files that are being put forward for approval.

4.

That the file review process should be modified to include Superintendents.

5.

That the Organizational goals should be a minimum of 33% females; a minimum of 33% visible minorities and up to 33% white males.

6.

That there was a need to re-examine the resourcing process so that we can recruit the best applicants fast!

On April 11th, 2007 a presentation was made to the Superintendents to provide them with a brief background on the current approach to recruitment overall, the need for change, their role in the proposed changes and the next steps. 8 On April 30th, 2007 the final presentation of those points was made to the Executive Team for final approval, which was obtained.

7 PowerPoint Ottawa Police Service 2007 Recruiting Campaign, December 2006 Report 8 PowerPoint Ottawa Police Service Candidate Review Process, Discussions with Superintendents April 11th, 2007

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The proposed changes as presented on April 11th and April 30th consisted of a shared approach to recruiting, with the Outreach Recruiting Team having the primary accountability to identify, contact, engage and qualify candidates for the recruiting process.

The Resourcing Unit was to have the primary accountability for managing and implementing the local focus interview, pre-background questionnaire, fingerprints, essential competency interview, records check, intelligence check, background investigation, psych - both written and interview stages, along with preparing Ottawa Police Service senior officer review and job offer letter. The candidates that the Resourcing Unit processed would be only those identified by the Outreach Recruiting Team.

The final file review for recommending candidates for job-offer was proposed to be the primary accountability of the Outreach Recruiting Team Inspector along with the Superintendents, with the Resourcing Unit having a key contributor role in this final review. It was also agreed that the Superintendents review of the files would occur after the candidates file had passed all other scrubs such as background and intelligence check and they would receive only the candidates highlights with the Outreach Recruiting Team Inspectors voice-over. The files would not include detailed findings from the interview, background, intelligence or psychiatric reports, as had been the previous practice.

Also, throughout the steps of the process in which the Resourcing Unit would have the primary accountability to manage, the Outreach Recruiting Team would be expected to continue to mentor the candidates as required. 9 This set the stage in what we expected to see in place.

9 PowerPoint Change to Candidate Review Process Sworn Recruit Officers Executive Team Meeting, April 30th, 2007

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WHAT WE FOUND
Structure An Inspector working out of the Centertown CPC office manages the Outreach Recruiting Team, a temporary staff of five full time members. A Staff Sergeant working out of Central manages the permanent Resourcing Unit, which includes, for purposes of recruiting sworn members, two full time members, fiftysix duty-permitting interviewers, twenty-one part-time backgrounders and a managed working relationship with intelligence, records, two Constable Selection System Certified psychologists and one Constable Selection System Certified medical doctor and finally the Professional Development Centre. What is important to note is that they were working out of two different areas, and for two different supervisors to achieve basically the same result, hire police officers.

Objectives of the Outreach Recruitment Project We generally found that participants expressed a common description of what they thought were the objectives of the Outreach Recruitment Project. They expressed in their own words that the Outreach Recruitment Project was established to look at ways to recruit from within a diverse community and to increase the diversity of the Ottawa Police Service or that the Outreach Recruitment Project was meant to open doors for people who may not have considered a career with the Ottawa Police. However, in spite of all the communications tools used so far over the past four years, no one was able to offer an explanation of the objectives that went beyond reaching out to the diverse community. This is an important point because it brings to question the issue of how much communication is enough. The Ottawa Police Service invested heavily in communicating the objectives of the Outreach Recruitment Project and still people think that it is only about recruiting diversity. 10 Its a long term process, recognizing that we are missing candidates from diverse backgrounds. To adjust our strategies to increase recruiting from diverse groups. To attract people who would not have traditionally thought of policing as a career.

The Outreach Recruiting Team and Their Ideal Role There was unconditional support for the existence of the Outreach Recruiting Team based on what participants believed to be their role. They expressed in their own words that the Outreach Recruiting Team was to seek out and find members of the various communities who may not have looked to policing as a career and get them into the process. They were to also mentor them through the recruitment process without compromising the process integrity. By ultimately increasing the number of candidates entering into the process they would increase the number of hires from those groups. They would accomplish this by attending various community functions, working with other police agencies to see what they were doing as

10Appendix D - Outreach Recruitment Project Goals and Objectives and Recommendations

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best practices and partnering with various community leaders and members of other Ottawa Police Service sections.

To offer contact personnel for people who dont have a connection within the police service. We need the team to work with recruits who lack the skills and develop relationships, promoting the police at job fairs as an employer of choice.

To reach out to the target groups in Ottawa. To build relationships to enlarge the pool of applicants from target groups that apply to Ottawa Police Service. Encourage members of the target group communities to consider a career in policing. Increase Diversity and assist with Diversity within Ottawa Police Service. To go out and develop partnerships with target communities and identify key persons and then open the door for them to apply to Ottawa Police Service.

Increase Diversity at Ottawa Police Service and network with community and other police services on how to increase target community applicant pool of candidates, including direct entries.

Make connections with members and guide them through the complex hiring process. To encourage them throughout the process and continue to support them post hire. Answer questions and doubts or help them address cultural issues affecting them inside and out of policing. Promote Ottawa Police Service in community.

The Outreach Recruiting Team - Assets Many of the participants were able to identify excellent assets attributed to the existence and work of our Outreach Recruiting Team.

Non-traditional candidates feel more comfortable in the process. Recruiters have time and resources to screen and look into persons background and motivation to become a police officer. They can assist with the HR processing part. They attract officers with a different skill set and knowledge base to the job

The assets to outreach are that it sends a signal to the community that police are making an attempt to include them and it sends a signal to the service that diversity is important. Remember when the first officer of Somali decent was hired and it was a big thing in the Somali community?

It tells the organization and the community that we are serious and solidifies a promise to the community to make the Service representative of the community. We were unable to deliver the goals as promised, with the system that we had. They couldnt manage the process and seek out candidates. This system sends out the right message. This process has given us a great deal of positive exposure.

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Ensuring goal of diversity is a reality, not lip service.

We are now at a point where the women in the selection pool are competing against each other. We are making great inroads. Better-qualified candidates are being brought forward.

That there are five people filling up the pool of candidates from target groups and that five people are dedicated to reaching out to target group and hard to reach communities. Ottawa Police Service is responding to the fact that is it is an candidates market, not an employers market They assist candidates who dont have traditional in roads. However, when it came to their specific roles and relationship with the new Outreach Recruiting Team we found that there were misunderstandings, concerns and gaps between what was thought to be the role of the Outreach Recruiting Team and what was seen as or perceived to be reality by the members we interviewed. Here is what we heard.

The Interviewers Most interviewers were frustrated and discouraged by the changes that occurred as a result of the mentoring and coaching work of the Outreach Recruiting Team members and felt that their work was being manipulated and minimized.

I have experienced during some of my interviews that it is very obvious that the candidate knows how to get a score of 4 on the answer. One candidate even said the number, when he referred to getting to a 4 in the interview I spoke with a candidate and asked him if he was getting any help and he told me that he had been provided the questions for the ECI by his mentor and that he prepared his competencies and was aided by the mentor in adapting them to fit the interview. There were examples of behaviour that lead to a belief that there was disrespect for the process.

One candidate presented a candy to us at the interview saying that my mentor told me to give you that.

Some interviewers alleged that they were being pressured:

I felt pressure from the team when I did interviews with their candidates. I knew that members of the team were waiting for the scores to be tallied after the interview.

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I was getting ready to do an interview and was asked by a Team member who I was interviewing and he said, oh, we want that guy!

The Shift from Weeding-out to Obtaining-Information-for-Validation-Purposes Most interviewers failed to see that a shift as a result of now having an Outreach Recruiting Team had and should have occurred or even why it shifted or needed to shift. As a result most interviewers seemed to be under the impression that nothing would change in how candidates presented themselves, even with mentors working with the potential candidates. The interviewers were not advised that instead of weedingpeople-out because the candidate could not figure out how to present to a competency the interviewers were now to start obtaining-information-for-validation-purposes since the candidates would now know to describe a competency. Interviewers now needed to probe to determine the strength of the existing competency. Information would have to be obtained to ensure that the backgrounders had the information they needed to work with in terms of validation. With the mentoring process now in place the focus had to shift to obtaining as much information as possible to validate the extent at which they are indeed proving the competency. Some insightful interviewers seemed to know that they had to adjust how they did business, however most didnt.

When I took the course to do this, I was told that candidates were over prepared. I saw my role as an information gatherer. I approached the interviews with an open mind and asked questions of their information. Ive done fourteen interviews in the last two years. I know they have access to information on the Internet. We prompt and document at the points we have to ask for more information. Most of the candidates are aware of the style of interviewing that we are doing and they come well prepared. The ones who do well in the process are the ones who have their answers they are prepared.

It is no secret what to expect from an ECI interview. Many police services conduct info sessions and mentoring programs and in the Police Foundations programs, there are courses that prepare you for the ECI interview. You can google ECI and get a lot of info as well, so it really doesnt matter who is coaching or mentoring you. It is up to the background investigator and the ECI interviewer to probe and get beyond the prepared answers.

However, as mentioned, most interviewers, though they knew that a change had occurred, didnt understand how it was that they were supposed to work with it or why the change was acceptable.

Over the past six months I have lost interest in doing interviews because they are getting 4/4 every time. Whats the point of doing the interview? It certainly makes more sense to devote our resources to interviewing mentored people who are now more likely to pass than to waste their time with people who are not prepared or mentored and therefore more

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likely to fail. However, this obvious point was not apparent to most interviewers and they started an e-mail campaign directed to the Staff Sergeant in charge of the process with a couple resigning as a result. To try and correct things the Inspector in charge of the Outreach Recruiting Team shared through a response email as much information as he could about how his team worked but unfortunately the after-the-fact reaction produced a more ingrained us versus them mentality and further split those who understood and those who didnt or wouldnt. As shared with us by a member of the Outreach Recruiting Team: Those who believe require no explanation; those who dont believe will accept no explanation. Past the Interviewers and Looking at the Interview Process As previously mentioned, many of the interviewers were concerned that the candidates were being given the examples that they could use to respond to the essential competency questions. We found no evidence of this, though we did find plenty of evidence that the Outreach Recruiting Team does provide as much information as they can as to how the candidates can prepare for the interview and what examples should be used. There are a large number of websites available to people who wish to prepare for essential competency interviews as well as all sorts of books available locally. The Outreach Recruiting Team also shared with potentially good candidates information such working with the P.A.R.T. methodology for competency interview preparation: 20% - Problem 40% - Action 20% - Result 10% - Teach

Where 20% of the value for the example given is allocated to identifying the problem, 40% to that action initiated 20% to the result of your actions and 10% attributed if you actually taught someone about what you learned as a result of your actions in dealing with the problem you described.

In this regard a discussion with a member of the Ministry of Public Safety and Security, Constable Selection Unit also confirmed with us that it doesnt matter how prepared the candidate is to answer the questions, they have to have lived the competency and it has to be validated. It is up to the interviewers to probe to get the information they need in order for the backgrounder to do their job. In essence the focus shifts from the interview to the background investigation when a candidate comes in well prepared with their examples. If a candidate is unable to substantiate their example with supportive evidence then it is not an acceptable example and they may fail. If they can substantiate it, then it doesnt matter that they knew what to say, as long as they really lived it.

If mentoring prior to the essential competency interview eliminates interviewing people who are bound to fail because they do not have the competencies or stumble simply because they did not know what to

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expect from the interview process then the mentors are saving a lot of time and work. This is a reasonable expectation.

It is also important to realize that the essential competency interview is but one stage of the process and the background is the most crucial. The background includes validating all the information of the prebackground questionnaire, the application itself, the interview, the work, school and community references, the credit check and the records check. When a person comes in fully prepared for an essential competency interview then the focus has to be shifted to the validation portion of the candidates life and not their ability to answer a question well or not. The interview is an excellent opportunity to get information that is not available through any other step of the process, to probe for details and truthfulness. No matter how much they want, candidates cant make up stuff about themselves when they are involved in a validationbased process and get away with it. They either lived it or they didnt.

A crucial point that must be firmly entrenched with interviewers is that if an example cant be validated then it should not be accepted.

Of course there is a difference between candidates who were interviewed before and those being interviewed now. The Ottawa Police Service never had the Outreach Recruiting Team mentoring candidates before. In the past it was based on what information, true or not, the candidate could get from workshops at colleges, books, on-line services, friends and/or relatives or based on what they heard from other candidates in order to prepare for the interview. Some flew through; others stumbled.

The Service should see none of that clumsiness with those candidates our Outreach Recruiting Team puts through. It would be a shame to think that our very own Outreach Recruiting Team mentoring people cant even get candidates ready for our very own process. With the work the Outreach Recruiting Team does in pre-screening candidates the candidates should do well throughout the process unless there really is something that comes along that they could not foresee, such as deceit on the part of the candidate. The Outreach Recruiting Team does provide as much information as they can as to how the candidates can prepare for the interview and what an answer should be. We found that they use all the tools available to them from the public domain such as websites that are accessible to everyone, books that are available at local bookstores and workshops available through Algonquin College and many other such institutions. 11 Since the Outreach Recruiting Team is investing heavily into pre-screening applicants it stands to reason that people who they send to the essential competency interviewers should do well. It could be suggested that the Outreach Recruiting Team is not doing its job very well if they are sending people to be

11 Appendix E Internal Focus Group Final Report

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interviewed and those candidates fail to demonstrate the competencies or they are not able to answer the questions with their real-life experiences. In fact, the candidates they mentor should be ready with several examples of lifes experiences to give for future validation.

The Repeated Example Many of the interviewers felt frustrated that they kept getting the same example over and over again from those who were mentored by the Outreach Recruiting Team. There is a common example being offered by candidates associated to the team that of a weight lifting exercise in the gym where the person is told about a new way of doing the exercise and they tell someone else about the new way. It is used frequently. In fact the use of that example has nothing to do with the Outreach Recruiting Team. Staff Sergeant Gravel states that interviewers have been complaining of this particular example being used overly so by candidates since 1997. It was one of the most common examples used to demonstrate how to respond to a question about flexibility. It is used by just about every college workshop on essential competency interviewing in Ontario. The Ottawa Police Service should decide that if interviewers, in collaboration with the Staff Sergeant in charge, feel that there is an example being used excessively and it is apparent that it is bringing the credibility of our process into disrepute, then it should be decided to no longer accept it. We Still Dont Understand the Difference between Equality and Equity There is still a misunderstanding between treating everyone equally and being smart about where to allocate our resources and time by being equitable. There were many comments shared with us that if the organization is going to do something for some then they should do it for all. For the most part in our work environment that concern would make sense, however, as you may recall, it was decided that the work of the Outreach Recruiting Team was to help build recruit classes that would consist of a minimum of 33% females; a minimum of 33% visible minorities and up to 33% white males. Members of the GLBT community could fit into any of those three groups. So if the Service has forty highly qualified white males applying for nine seats in a class of twenty-seven, unless another white male comes along with some pretty impressive secondary dimensions of diversity, interviewing and mentoring a forty-first white male is a waste of time. It just doesnt make any sense. So when members of the organization hear the Outreach Recruiting Team telling people that they are looking for people with different dimensions of diversity then they are not looking for more of the same and no one should be forced to pretend that we are.

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It is important to define equality in relation to what the police services may have to do in order to increase that applicant pool and thereby create a successful result. The law in all its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread12 This law brings into question the complexities of what happens when we talk about equality. By being totally inclusive, both the rich and the poor are treated equally, but are they being treated fairly? To state that a practice is valid as it treats everyone equally; that the rich are as affected by the above-mentioned law as the poor; is ridiculous. No doubt, in some cases treating everyone the same is precisely what is required. Everyone has the right to equal protection under the law, for example. However treating everyone the same all the time and in all circumstances is not always treating everyone equally. Sometimes we have to accommodate their differences to treat them equally. Equality is extremely flexible and must end with a result of fairness. Simply put, if equality is brought down to the basics of everyone being treated fairly it becomes easier to work with. If we accept this approach it then stands to reason that sometimes police services have to accommodate differences between white males and women, visible minorities, gays, lesbians, or aboriginals in order to be fair. If they do not, they risk denying a difference that makes all applicants equal. A simple example might be the attendance at a certain job-fair. If women, visible minorities, gays, lesbians or aboriginals as a general rule do not attend that particular job-fair, then they are not receiving the same or equal treatment as those who do attend. In fact if the women, visible minorities, gays, lesbians or aboriginal community have their own job-fairs, and they do, then the police, by not attending, are then in fact not inviting women, visible minorities, gays, lesbians or aboriginals to consider policing as a career. Again, no one is assuming a right to a job, but the right to at least be given the same information as the majority of the population in a fair manner is a reasonable expectation. By not accommodating against that difference, police services may be creating an environment that is unfair for one applicant versus the other. It may not be their intent for it to happen but they certainly can be accused of denying certain potential applicants fair access to information about why they should consider policing as a career. One might argue that the police services only obligation is to make sure that the opportunity to apply is not denied. However, systemic discrimination is measured by the results of a system and the results of the police recruitment classes today is such that they are placing themselves in a position

12 Anatole France, Le Lys Rouge (the Red Lily). Quoted in John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations. (Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1980), p. 655.

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to be accused of discrimination. 13 There are in fact very few visible minorities being hired by police services today considering their number within the make-up of the communities. In going back to the forty-first traditional white male, why deceive someone into believing they are competitive when they are not. It makes sense to be honest with them and tell them to move on unless they are prepared to show the Service that they have more to offer than the forty applicants already in the pool.

The same would not be said if they were talking about forty women, visible minorities, aboriginals or members of the GLBT community because reaching out to them is indeed the entire object of the Outreach Recruitment Project.

Is this not Reverse Discrimination? No, it is not and here is the reason why. Under the Ontario Human Rights Code under Part II, section 14.(1) there is a statement that no rights are infringed by the implementation of a special program designed to relieve hardship or economic disadvantage or to assist disadvantaged persons or groups to achieve or attempt to achieve equal opportunity or that is likely to contribute to the elimination of the infringement of rights under Part I. R.S.O. 1990, c. H.19, s. 14 (1). The Outreach Recruitment Project identifies all women, visible minorities, aboriginals and members of the GLBT community as disadvanted persons. There is also Section 15(1) and (2) of the Canadian Charter of Rights which states: 15. (1) Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability. (2) Subsection (1) does not preclude any law, program or activity that has as its object the amelioration of conditions of disadvantaged individuals or groups including those that are disadvantaged because of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability. In spite of these rights to work only with special groups, the Outreach Recruiting Team indicates that they will also and do mentor the traditional white male who brings additional assets to the organization. It also makes sense to partner with other police agencies and government agencies as the Outreach Recruiting Team has done in their information workshops. The R.C.M.P., Calgary and Edmonton Police Services are in a numbers crunch. They need to fill spots! The Ottawa Police Service is not in the same

13 Appendix F Testing or Recruiting Where Should the Emphasis Be?

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numbers crunch. Yes, the Ottawa Police do have recruiting issues but because they started working on this project five years ago they have become so pro-active that they can be more selective as to where they want to see their recruiting efforts targeted. Other organizations may not have done or planned as well and so when the Outreach Recruitment Team tells thirty-one white males out of forty that the nine seats are filled, they can encourage those perfectly good and qualified applicants to apply to other organizations that also want their positions filled. However, when competing against York, Peel, the O.P.P. or Toronto then the Ottawa Police is into the same race as they are and it is that competition that is fierce.

The Background Investigators Going back to the comment made earlier, the entire relationship between the work of interviewers and the work of the background investigators must be re-visited. Many interviewers indicated that they are rarely contacted for further information or clarification by background investigators and that if the focus of the interviews is to switch from weeding-people-out to obtaining-information-for-validation-purposes, then there has to be stronger partnerships and discussions between interviewers and backgrounders about candidates. Training may be required. Out of the 25 interviews I have conducted, I have only received one call from a background investigator. Staff Sergeant Gravel can also state that he did interviews regularly between 1998 and 2005 and can recall having received only three telephone calls from background investigators during all those years. But that is not the only area of concern. There is also the area of defining the working relationship between the Background Investigators, the Resourcing Unit and the Outreach Recruiting Team in relation to what is expected of the backgrounders. They are expecting the files to be done in three weeks; it really takes longer than that to get them done with the appropriate level of thoroughness. There is also the issue of re-opening old files and we are not sure what the reasoning is for that, since the Outreach Recruiting Team is very good at generating interest from the community there should be no need to re-open old files. I was presented a candidate who was turned down in both 2002 and 2003. The applicant was brought forward again, the file on the candidate is huge. He was told never to reapply and here he is again. When I refused to do it again, it was given to another backgrounder.

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We also heard that in general that background investigators have no issues as to how things are being run since the Outreach Recruiting Team has been put in place. As shared to us by one backgrounder: I have no issues with how things are being run since the outreach team has been put into place. I have seen no drop in quality of candidates since the team has been in place and I have no issues with candidates being coached for the ECI interviews as it is their job to validate the example before recommending the individual. The ECI portion is only one part of a larger process and that as a background investigator my role is to give Human Resources the best possible view of who the candidate is and what they bring to the table. The only concern that I have is that I would like to see better communication between the various members involved in the process. I also question why candidates are being sent to the background stage when they had not completed their psychological testing. However, again we see no indication that these members were brought into any sort of structured information session to discuss their concerns. The Resourcing Unit The impact the Resourcing Unit members expected was that as a result of the Outreach Recruiting Teams work in going to the various communities, identifying potential present and future candidates and directing them to the Resourcing Team for processing they would see an increase in the applicant pool of a more diverse group of candidates.

Very early into the partnership there was difficulty understanding the chain of command, with the Unit members receiving instructions from an Inspector they did not report to.

The Resourcing Unit members stated that it got to the point where they didnt know which group was responsible for what, what the agreements were, what was confidential or not and who revealing information to was allowed or not. We kept hearing that in their opinion they were forever being forced to breach the contract. A contract with specific rules of behaviour when working within the Constable Selection System recruitment process that members of the Outreach Recruiting Team did not appear to be familiar with.

This work environment was not a healthy or respectful one for either the Outreach Recruiting Team or members of the Resourcing Unit. The Outreach Recruiting Team felt they had to continuously challenge members of the Resourcing Unit to make the process faster and more efficient and to provide the Outreach Recruiting Team members with information on their candidates so that they could ensure that they were moving along the process or if they needed support as they were tasked with doing. However Resourcing Unit members who had previously been instructed they should never divulge such information on the candidates to anyone felt like they were committing breaches of the contractual agreement with the OACP.

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The Resourcing Unit felt challenged and disrespected, as if they were the problem instead of part of the solution. The Outreach Recruiting Team felt as though they were being portrayed as bullies and manipulators.

From The Resourcing Units perspective:

A member of the Outreach Recruiting Team demanded to be given the Constable Selection System Book. This is referred to as the CSS Bible. In it is revealed all the areas where a candidate can be failed not only for a time frame but from ever becoming a police officer anywhere in the Province of Ontario. Since this member was not certified by the Constable Selection System showing it to them is a breach of the process. We couldnt give it to them, so they simply came in and took it out of the office.

They need to focus on connecting with the community and identifying the right people to bring forward to HR and then trust in the existing process and the people in HR to do the rest.

The Team should not have access to a candidates file, as it is not their mandate to process the candidate, but to encourage them to go into the process. They are stepping outside of their role.

And from the Outreach Recruiters point of view:

Our current membership seems to have concerns about how we are doing things, that we are unethical.

People have limited knowledge about the program and they are quick to say we are lowering the bar.

Communication between the two groups and a clear understanding of who was to do what when, and who was to help whom how, was not only wanting but blurred.
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Im tired of defending this. I think it would be helpful to be in the same building as Human Resources in that I think there is a disconnect between the two groups. Sometimes we dont know what each other is doing. There seems to be a trust issue between HR and our team. At present there is not solidarity. It would be helpful to be in the same building. I hate this cloak and dagger stuff. We now have access to files although it is rare that I have to get a file. There needs to be clarification on info that can be released to the candidates. Knowing how to answer a question without being given the questions will help the candidate do better.

14 Appendix H Chiefs Verbal Report to the Board Intro to Champions

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We want to share one further observation. The Resourcing Unit is presently working with only one full time civilian staff member reporting to a Staff sergeant. Up to less than a year ago there were: one sergeant, two constables and one civilian doing the same work, reporting to a Staff Sergeant. The demand for processing these candidates in a timely fashion cannot be done in the present staffing format. The staff of Human Resources needs to be increased to meet the need of this project, to at the very least, the same number as a year ago.

The Community Members of the community are very strongly in favour of the work of the Outreach Recruiting Team. There are groups of people who cant speak highly enough of the great value there is to having them reaching out into the community. We have also seen examples in the local media of those who do not appreciate or understand the work of our Outreach Recruiting Team. They refer to their neighbour, or son or acquaintance that didnt get hired yet they read about the semi-famous candidate who did or someone who was brought in from another City. The Ottawa Police needs to be vocal about its stance and its objectives and its support of the work being done by its members through the Outreach Recruiting Team.

The Recruits Being at the receiving end of the concentrated efforts of members of the Outreach Recruiting Team, their point of view is crucial to our review of the process. We found that a sample selection of the one class hired by the Outreach Recruiting Team in August of 2007revealed desires to get into policing that ranged from 1.5 years to 20 years.

We noted that mentoring a candidate seems to be the work of the entire team and not just one individual. The following comments were shared with us:

I was given the opportunity to speak about myself and review what my strengths were and explore why I
would be an asset to the OPS. The outreach team reviewed my life experiences that related to policing and allowed me to see if I would be suitable for a job in policing.

Yes I felt that it gave me the confidence and empowered me to go through the process.

I first had contact with the OPS outreach team when they attended my school. They followed up after I completed the ATS and I attended 2 ECI workshops that were conducted by the team. They were excellent. After the second workshop, I felt confident and great to be able to answer the questions appropriately.

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The outreach team looked at what I brought to the table, specifically my skill set and they worked with me to help me promote my skill set and showed me that I needed to stand out from the others attempting to join OPS as well. They gave me validation that I was a good candidate and they endorsed and supported me.

They gave me global support throughout. I felt that I was a person who meant something to OPS. I felt special. They made the process more human.

In terms of how the work done by the Outreach Recruiting Team prepared the candidate: Yes it gave me the understanding of the role of police and the hiring process at each stage.

Absolutely, from the PREP stage until the ECI stage, it was made clear to me what to expect and this put me at ease and made me feel more comfortable. They gave me guidelines to follow so that I knew how to organize myself to best go through each stage.

Yes definitely. I would have succeeded anyway, but I felt more confident going through the process and their endorsement meant that they believed that I had the qualities required to be a good officer and than motivated me to pursue my goal.

It was also important for us to capture their views on what the assets were of the Outreach Recruiting Team:

-It allows for first contact with an officer whose mandate is to support the candidate. -OPS able to reach out to non-traditional communities. -Be able to identify qualified members from those target communities. -You can widen your scope of candidates instead of relying on what comes to you. -OPS comes across as a high caliber police service. -Personalize the interactions with candidates to find the suitable ones. -Be able to be the first to screen and endorse from the beginning. -Being able to build connections with various communities. -Push past existing barriers and boundaries to address perceptions that policing is still a white mans job. -Provide education to the communities about the role of police. -Be able to attract and recruit people who have a different set of skills that are now required to police effectively. -Be able to encourage different people to come forward and consider a career in policing. -The process was more human -You felt part of the organization.

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-All citizens are reflected within OPS. -They can screen the suitable candidates before they begin the hiring process.

The following were seen as liabilities or concerns from the candidates as a result of having been brought through the recruitment process by the Outreach Recruiting Team:

People may not understand the role of the outreach team and be ignorant in their perception and assume that the candidate standard is being lowered and that the process is not being followed. This creates a negative environment for recruits who are at a vulnerable stage of their career.

It opens the door for people to complain about reverse discrimination regardless if candidates are hired or not.

People will perceive that candidates only got on because they are from a target group. Even though these perceptions are based on biases it is still very hard to address.

When asked if they got a sense that the OPS outreach recruitment team is available to anyone who needs support they replied: Yes, for sure, but you still have to work for it. I was not spoon fed. Yes absolutely. They do outreach to anyone and everyone. You feel that you are part of a family, but you still have to do the leg work. All in all the process worked well for the recruits and they saw it as a support group with inside knowledge that could clarify if needed what was required of them. They still had to have it, to want it and work for it all. As stated, I was not spoon fed and you still have to do the leg work. The Outreach Recruiting Team All members of the Outreach Recruiting Team are provided with an excellent and highly detailed manual entitled, OTTAWA POLICE SERVICES RECRUITER HANDBOOK, which consist of over 400 pages of material within 16 sections and 24 subsections on how members are expected to work within the Outreach Recruiting Team. This handout addresses aspects of recruiting such as: a. b. c. d. e. f. Mentoring Interview Resource Material Customer Service Telephone Etiquette Event Planning Media Relations

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Throughout the entire handbook there is no connection described on how to work with anyone else involved in the recruitment process, except to support other recruiters. The only reference found to acknowledge a working relationship within the recruitment process was to maintain communication with the Resourcing Unit to follow-up on applications, but nothing further.

This may have also added to the divide we saw between the two distinct groups. There certainly appeared to be more that happened than simply communicating with the Resourcing Unit to follow-up on applications.

We heard of several examples from the Resourcing Unit, of the Outreach Recruiting Team working within the process differently than what was approved on the April 30th, 2007 presentation to the Executive and we also heard examples of why the Outreach Recruiting Team were frustrated with trying to achieve their tasks.

As previously mentioned, the Outreach Recruiting Team did not have any primary or secondary role when it came to the Constable Selection System recruitment process itself, (the interviews, the background or any other stage) other than to support the candidate through the process.

However the Outreach Recruiting Team Inspector does not agree with that information. In his opinion he was clearly given the task of reviewing their candidates files through every stage of the recruitment process to ensure that the candidates received all the support they needed and that the files were proceeding along at a respectable pace. Though we dont disagree with the value added, we could find no evidence of an approved plan that supported such action.

If the Outreach Recruiting Team Inspector was to have access to review each file as the candidates worked their way through the Constable Selection System process then it would probably have been appropriate to equip the Inspector with the information he needed in order to not contravene any of the terms of the Contractual Agreement between the Ottawa Police and the OACP established back in 1998.

As an example, in one particular case, the Outreach Recruiting Team members are advised to forewarn two of their candidates that they failed the psychological testing before they get the results in the mail. In fact the recruits never get anything in the mail. The Psychologists work for the police and the test results, not the details, are sent to the police not the candidate. It is the police who advise the candidate, not the doctor. The reason for this, as decided by the management of the Constable Selection System, is directly related to past incidents throughout the province where doctors received visits from unsuccessful candidates who

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wished to argue their case. The doctors provide a service for us and should not have to deal directly with candidates who object to their findings.

In another situation a Pre-Background Questionnaire Form was left with a candidate by an Outreach Recruiting Team member for them to fill out and mail in when completed. However as per Sec 8.5 of the OACP Agreement: Under no circumstances shall any candidate for the position of police constable be allowed to remove a copy of the Tools from the Boards facilities. And the Pre-Background Questionnaire is one of those tools.

There are also examples of the Outreach Recruiting Team taking offense to what some interviewers observed and made note of during their interviews of mentored candidates. The Outreach Recruiting Team would send out e-mails to the Staff Sergeant of Resourcing asking that specific interviewers be brought into the program.

There are also examples of the Outreach Recruiting Team suggesting to the Resourcing Unit that certain Background Investigators be given certain files as, this particular background investigator gets it.

In another situation the CSS-Bible, a Master Book that details all of the recruitment process from A-Z was removed for up to two weeks from the Resourcing Unit office and was in the possession of a member of the Outreach Recruiting Team. Again this was contrary to the Contractual Agreement, which states:

Under no circumstances shall any candidate for the position of police constable be allowed to remove a copy of the Tools from the Boards facilities. (Sec 8.5)

The Board shall limit access to the Tools to those persons who are trained to use the Tools, and shall not use the Tools in any manner which compromises their security. (Sec 8.6)

However, whenever the Outreach Recruiting Team asked about how their candidates were doing in order to ensure themselves that the candidates were moving forward or doing well, they kept being told, You cant have that information or You cant have that file. They didnt understand why they couldnt be told or what rule was being breached when given those answers and were simply left standing there empty handed. They wanted to know why they were constantly being refused information aside from being told that it was against some obscure rule. They wanted to know what rules were being breached and wanted to know before hand not after the fact. When they asked if they could see where these rules came from they were told that they were not even allowed to see the book of rules known as the CSS-Bible. So they borrowed it. After a couple of weeks it was returned and they then contacted the Applicant Testing Services to obtain a book of their own. The Outreach Recruiting Team was immediately offered an annotated version of the

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process rules that would give them what they needed so that they too could understand the process better, which is all they were trying to do to start off with.

What was also frustrating for the Outreach Recruiting Team was the following. Their primary role was to identify, contact, engage and qualify candidates for the recruiting process. The Resourcing Unit was to process only those candidates who were identified by the Outreach Recruiting Team. So the Outreach Recruiting Team would identify candidates #1, #2, #3, & #4 as being ready for processing and hand them over to the Resourcing Unit. However, instead of respecting the approved plan of moving only the Outreach Recruiting Team candidates through the process the Resourcing unit continued to only process candidates #A, #B, #C & #D that they already had on file. Unfortunately candidates #A, #B, #C & #D had nothing to offer in terms of diversity assets, so candidates #1, #2, #3, & #4 were left out of the process waiting for everyone else to work their way through when they were the ones we were looking for.

Also, if there were 75 applications in the cabinet they were processed in the sequence in which they were date-stamped. So if there were 75 traditional white males in the cabinet and the 76th application was a woman or an aboriginal, then they had to wait their turn to get processed. So, if the Outreach Recruiting Team identified the 76th candidate as someone the Resourcing Unit should look at, the Resourcing Unit would simply tell the Outreach Recruiting Team member that their candidate would simply have to wait their turn. That everyone was to be treated equally. It appeared as though the Resourcing Unit did not get that this was not about equality, but about getting the assets we needed as soon as possible.

So, the Inspector stepped in and took a firm hand in making sure the Outreach Recruiting Team files moved forward through the Constable Selection System managed by the Resourcing Unit as they should. Though these actions he now undertook were not part of the approved plan, he felt it was a required action to ensure the success of the plan.

As soon as he initiated these actions, allegations started that files were being manipulated, that candidates were not being treated equally. That the Outreach Recruiting Team had access to files without being certified, that they were reading interviewers notes and calling them to discuss the notes they recorded during interviews. Background investigators were being called and told to change their comments and the list goes on and on and on, of what was now happening in Human Resources now that the Inspector had taken control. There is no doubt that it would have helped had the Inspector been given an opportunity to familiarize himself with some of the process rules, but even getting those required some positioning. It was made very clear to the Inspector that he would be held to task on the results of the next recruit class. This was a valid understanding as it was confirmed in our discussions with members of the Executive Team.

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The Outreach Recruiting Team advised us that 70 % of the applicants are white males and they have never turned down any candidate who asks for help that have the potential to be hired. If they dont have the qualifications, they make suggestions on how they can improve themselves. They keep a record of who applies, and they have information sessions where they get a broad spectrum of applicants. They share sign in sheets from those meetings with the O.P.P. and R.C.M.P. They intend to run a joint hiring process with the O.P.P. and they have a standing invitation with them to attend their recruiting sessions. The Outreach Recruiting Team members looked at the way that Ottawa Police did business before where they attended Universities and law related events. They were not yielding great results. As a result the Outreach Recruiting Team needed to be focused on the specific communities like the aboriginal community, GLBT, economically disadvantaged etc. to show them that they too could police the community. They went to the Sikh Temples and Mosques to engage the communities. They consulted with ATS and made special arrangements for testing at John Abbott College in Montreal to respond to our time line needs.

There were several concerns mentioned as to how much the Outreach Recruiting Team members are allowing themselves to get personal with the potential candidates that they are mentoring. It is recognized however that mentoring does not only happen at work, especially for people who are not employed by the police as it is and who do not want their own employers to know that they are considering another career. The extent of that relationship should be defined.

There is no doubt that they are moving forward as would be expected of any full time recruiting team working for any organization and that is what the Ottawa Police Service wanted. This is an example of the e-mails that are on file supporting their work:

I just want to say how much I enjoyed the women's information night on October 29. It is not very often that we are met with such encouragement and enthusiasm to pursue a career that is male dominated.

This being my first information session, I was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable you and your colleges made me feel about not only choosing to become an officer but also comfortable in the fact that I have the guidance and the support that I will need to pursue my dream. Very few, if any career offer what you women offer and that is chance to navigate this system successfully so that we too can contribute to our society and make a difference in our communities.

Thank you so much for giving your time, knowledge and support and for allowing me to realize that I am making the right choice and I am ready to take the next leap forward.

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The MMPI-2 and our Certified Psychologists Members of the Outreach Recruiting Team have issues with the use of the MMPI-2 and its interpretation by the service psychologists. One of these psychologists has been involved with the Ottawa Police Service since 1979; the other has been involved since 1997. Both have been part of the Psychologists Working Group establishing guidelines for police psychologists in the pre-employment selection process. Their work with the Ottawa Police Service in all details was reviewed by both the community and our members in 2005 and 2006 and found to be acceptable by both groups. There was no evidence available to us that either of the psychologists is biased.

Nevertheless, there appears to be a perception that women and minority candidates may be experiencing difficulties in the psychometric and interview processes. This was a mutual concern of Staff Sergeant Gravel and Dr. Monteiro in 2003 when an apparent bias to the success of female candidates was noted in the higher than expected percentage of failures of those candidates. Following discussions with both psychologists, Staff Sergeant Gravel reviewed the cases individually in 2003 and the failures were determined to be congruent with the suitability and psychopathology guidelines. Staff Sergeant Gravel was satisfied that the concern was not substantiated.

For this review, the psychologists were asked to describe their experience of the assessment process at this time. They identified three serious concerns which they believe may be having a negative impact on the success of all candidates:

(1) There is an increase in the number of candidates whose MMPI-2 profiles indicate significant psychological problems. These profiles are consistent with emotional turmoil, depression, anxiety, paranoia, and impulse control problems. Because these profiles are already rare events in the general population, it is of grave concern to them that candidates may be insufficiently screened and therefore are advancing to the psychological phase while presenting with, sometimes overt, personality problems that would be counterproductive to success as a police officer.

In 2007, we have had so far almost 10 MMPI-2 profiles that are considered above the cut-off scores for acceptability (T score > 65 indicates a strong likelihood of personality problems). What is of concern is that these scores surpass the cutoff scores on scales indicating types of presentations that are problematic to the work of policing. As previously mentioned, in the past 10 years we may have seen only 2 or 3 that would have met that criteria.

(2) Candidates from the target groups appear to be misled as to the content of the interview and the conduct of the psychologists. Some candidates have stated that they were given certain

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expectations of what the interview would cover. They seem taken aback that they are being asked to engage with the psychologist in a way that reflects their collaborative decision-making processes and capacity for self-examination. It is a concern of the psychologists that the protected content of the interview has been compromised and that it is now difficult to discern if a candidate is characterologically rigid in their thinking or simply poorly guided. Candidates stated that they were told the psychologists would behave in ways that would incite or inflame them as a test of their competence. This is resulting in a high level of anxiety in these candidates who then cannot remain composed during a normal inquiry process.

(3) The personality assessment measure (MMPI-2) only assesses for pathology (rule out) and not for characteristics that are related to job performance (rule in). Whereas the MMPI-2 is necessary, it is by no means sufficient as an assessment battery. The impact on target groups and concern for all candidates has been forwarded to the Process Review Team in a letter. You will note that we extracted Recommendation #22 from their letter with their permission.15

The Outreach Recruiting Team Liabilities / Concerns One of the questions we asked was whether or not the members saw liabilities or concerns about how the Outreach Recruiting Team Program worked. We heard a variety of answers and share these with you as examples of the wide range of opinions from members from within the recruitment process as to how they see things:

Pieces of the process are being compromised and the quality of the recruits being hired is questionable. The person who is mentoring the candidate should not be the person doing the interviews, background or any other process. The checks and balances are being compromised when a Recruiting Team member is also ECI interview qualified and reviewing applications. The interviews are now so scripted that Im wondering why we are doing them. The Team cant be involved in both recruiting and in HR hiring process as it presents a conflict of interest. None of the recruiting team members to my knowledge has signed any confidentiality agreement. One candidate had not completed their OACP certificate and was moved forward by jumping the steps that other candidates were subjected to. The LFI and ECI were done and afterward the individual failed at the ATS testing. The CSS system requires the initial testing be done first. We set ourselves up for criticism when we dont do that. Short cuts put us at risk of being exposed for favoritism.

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Outreach Recruiting Team members are getting personally involved with seeing their target group candidates succeed in the process.

Outreach Recruiting Team members also expressed some concerns. People who believe in diversity and its benefits will become disillusioned if Ottawa Police Service does not achieve its goal of becoming reflective of the community. We have to stick with the project. There needs to be more exposure to the Organization about what we are doing.

Our purpose seems to be eluded by the members. Its interesting that this has attracted so much attention.
The Outreach Recruitment Program has not been communicated effectively to the Organization. People can get false perceptions about what the Outreach Team is aboutthat is, what they do and what their purpose is. Ottawa Police Service needs to be clear in how they communicate its messaging about the purpose of the Outreach Recruitment Team and its objectives to both Ottawa Police Service membership and the community. Understanding the Mandate There was also a consistent belief that people not involved in the recruiting process within the Organization did not understand the role of those involved in working with the Constable Selection System, the role of the Outreach Recruiting Team or the Constable Selection System itself. Even with all the media attention we have received there are still huge gaps in what both the membership and the community understand this work is all about. 15

It was pointed out to us that it was not as relevant whether or not everyone outside the process understood what those in the process were doing as long as those working within it understood each others roles. However, when asked if our participants understood the mandate of the Outreach Recruiting Team and would they offer suggestions as to whether of not it should be changed we heard a variety of answers: I dont know what their mandate is.

There is no mandate written down

No, the mandate is very clear to us and the community and the Executive office.

15 Appendix I Media Clips

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I do not have enough information on their mandate to answer this question. If you show me the mandate, then I will tell you if they are meeting the requirements of it. Their role should be clearly defined so that we can see where is the line?

I believe the mandate is to provide a large enough pool to recruit from

I dont know what the mandate is. I know that they were told to get the job done.

We dont need to change the mandate it was established in consultation with the Community its just become more specific.

What is disturbing about the range of these responses is that all these people work together to make the recruitment process work. If they dont have the same understanding themselves about what the mandate is how can we expect outsiders to understand or support them?

The Final Selection Our final concern relates to the final selection process. In Toronto for example the final selection of recommended candidates is done through a case conference with the Staff Sergeant in charge of Background and Recruiting along with other support staff in the team. In addition, the background investigator, the recruiter and if need be the interviewers can be called upon to discuss the file as well. If the candidate is a rock solid candidate then the file is simply reviewed, signed off by the Sergeant who turns it over to the Staff Sergeant and then on to the Deputy Chief who has the final sign off in either approach.

Our Superintendents are pleased to be involved in the final selection process and want to support the process. They are however a bit unsure as to how the candidates are selected that are being recommended to them and disagree as to the level in which they should be involved in reviewing the file once it is brought to them. Some expressed a desire to see as much as possible so that they can have a say as to who is finally selected, others trust that the selection was done properly by the Inspector and his Team and they should only have to know who the candidates are.

One thing is clear. The routing and review process to recommend candidates for final approvals must include checks and balances. As one example of how this could be done, we recommend the following manner be considered: a. The final recommendation of candidates should be proposed through a case conference involving the Staff Sergeant in charge of the Resourcing Unit as the lead and a select number of staff from the Outreach Recruiting Team and the Resourcing Unit.

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b.

After the case conference, once candidates are identified, then the involved background investigators, interviewers, recruiters and champions should also be consulted for what further information they can share with the Staff Sergeant.

c.

If there are issues about the candidate to be addressed then these must be addressed before it is moved forward.

d.

If the issues cannot be addressed then the Staff Sergeant will meet with the Inspector to bring them into the loop as to what the issues are and receive direction to proceed or not.

e.

If the candidate has a rock-solid file then the file is simply reviewed, signed off by the Staff Sergeant who turns it over to the Inspector.

f.

If the candidates issues are addressed then the file is brought to the Inspector with a note that there were issues that had to be addressed in order to bring the file forward. The Inspector will review the issues to be personally satisfied to move the file forward or not.

g.

If the candidate has a rock-solid file then the Inspector can provide the Superintendents with a simple voice-over candidate profile so that the Superintendents are aware of whom the candidate is. This can be done by e-mail.

h.

If there were issues with the file that have been addressed and is now being recommended for hire, the Inspector then brings the file along with an attached voice-over candidate profile to a case conference with the Superintendents. If the Superintendents chose to read past the voice-over profile, then the file is there for them to see. If the Superintendents have any questions about the issues they wished clarified then the Inspector and, if need be, the Staff Sergeant can respond accordingly before the Superintendents sign off

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FINAL SELECTION PROCESS PROPOSAL

CASE CONFERENCE Staff Sergeant in HR with members of Resourcing and Recruiting

SELECTION Interviewers and Backgrounders called to determine that there is nothing else to be said

ROCK-SOLID No Issues Turned over to Inspector for final approval

ISSUES All addressed - no longer a concern Inform Inspector and seek approval to move forward

ISSUES - not addressed: Inform Inspector who can - Reject - Stand-down

E-MAIL Candidates profile sent to Superintendant's for their sign-off because there are no issues

CASE CONFERENCE Superintendants with Inspector and/or Staff Sergeant in HR review Candidate's profile and file. Superintendants who review file personally can:

STAND-DOWN File to be re-opened at a later date to address further issues. May be held for up to three months and then must be reassessed.

(A) Request clarification as to details of issue or further investigation (B) Reject (C) Stand down (D) Approve and sign-off

REJECTED Letter sent to candidate advising them that the application file is being closed.

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CONCLUSION The Process Review Team has been given the mandate to review aspects of the Outreach Recruiting Team role and its activities within the Constable Selection System to: 1. 2. Determine where the Recruiting Teams role adds value to the overall process; Determine if there are issues about the Outreach Recruiting Teams role;

3. Develop recommendations addressing these issues.

1. Determine where the Recruiting Teams role adds value to the overall process There is no doubt that the Outreach Recruiting Teams role adds value to the overall process. Staff Sergeant Gravel can attest to the fact that in 2004 he found 12 applications in the filing cabinet in Human Resources that he could identify as belonging to either women or visible minorities. When it is known that it takes 100 applications to get 20 good recruits, having 12 files on hand doesnt get the Ottawa Police anywhere. There was no recruiting team in process then and they basically worked with what they had in the cabinet.

Today, the Outreach Recruiting Team has been able to attract 140 people to their last information session and up to 75 women to a session specifically designed to reach out to them.

They are producing a large number of potential candidates from each of our target groups and that is exactly what they were asked to do.

Furthermore, they have developed partnerships in sharing sign-ins sheets with the RCMP and the OPP.

They are in the process of negotiating OACP CSS testing in partnership with the OPP, (they are licensed to do this recruit testing) and they have negotiated and obtained an agreement to have ATS attend at John Abbott College in Quebec to test for potential applicants there, which they would never have done before.

They are screening candidates as they come to them so that those involved in the recruitment process are not wasting their time interviewing people who are not ready for policing.

We believe that they are indeed adding value to the overall process and will continue to do so if they are permitted to continue. There are changes in how the working relationship of the Outreach Recruiting Team and the Resourcing Unit is managed that we would however recommend.

2. Determine if there are issues about the Outreach Recruiting Teams role This was a difficult determination to make because there were so many other indirect issues involved. These werent so much with the role of the Outreach Recruiting Team as much as they were issues

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throughout the process, highlighted as a result of the inception of the work of the Outreach Recruiting Team. Here are the issues that we identified. 1. 2. 3. It appears as though not everyone was brought into the loop as to the existence of a plan. It did not appear as though what was planned matched what was being done. Members of the Organization as a whole did not seem to understand what was going on in Recruiting. 4. Members working in the sections affected did not clearly understand the Plan and what was expected of them. 5. 6. The chain of command was not only confusing but not structured to succeed. A respectful workplace environment was difficult to maintain when people from both sides were starting rumours against each other. 7. There was frustration on both sides between those who wanted to change the process and those who didnt. 8. There was an on-going argument as to whether or not a member could or could not be a recruiter if they had some background as a CSS Interviewer or backgrounder. 9. There were allegations of inappropriate behaviour between recruiters and their potential candidates and between recruiters and others involved in the recruitment process. 10. There were issues around the confidentiality of the candidates files and who had access to that information. 11. The validity of the continued use of the Essential Competency Interview was challenged. 12. The acceptance of a non-validated examples offered at the Essential Competency Interview was an issue. 13. The acceptance of the excessively repeated or weak example during the Essential Competency Interview was an issue. 14. The working relationship between the interviewers and the background investigators didnt seem to work well. 15. The routing and review process to recommend candidates for final approvals seemed to lack checks and balances. 16. Being assigned as a temporary unit was difficult on the members of the Outreach Recruiting Team as recruiting is a long term investment. 17. Members question if the Constable Selection System is indeed the best recruiting process available to the Ottawa Police. 18. Members felt that both the Resourcing Unit and the Outreach Recruiting Team should be working out of the same office at the same location, planning their approach together and working as a team, as one unit, under one command to achieve the same goal. 19. The use of the MMPI-2 still does not sit well with many members.

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3. Develop recommendations addressing these issues. We offer the following recommendations to address these issues:

1.

A Plan has to be in place for all to see. The mandate and working relationships, roles and responsibilities, workflow processes including links and reporting structure between the Outreach Recruiting Team and everyone else already involved in the recruitment process needs to be plainly spelled out. Flexibility can be built into the Plan if required and best practices from police or private organizations and existing internal research should be referred to in this plan. There is no need to stop the existing work while this Plan is being developed. The Plan should be built with the assistance of members presently involved within the recruitment process so that at the end there will be credibility and buy-in by the membership.

2.

The Executive must approve the Plan. The work that follows must match what the Executive approves. If adjustments are required as the Plan moves along, then an approved working process must be in place to address those areas of adjustment.

3.

The Chief must champion and communicate the Plan to the entire Organization as this is an organizational shift that is being initiated and it must be seen as endorsed, without doubt, by the Chief of the organization and his Executive Command.

4.

Everyone working in the sections affected must have the details of the Plan communicated to them in a facilitated environment so that they can clearly understand who will be doing what, when, where and how. They must also be given an opportunity to discuss their concerns so that these can be alleviated at the onset of the Plan. Everyone means: the five full time members of the Outreach Recruiting Team, the two full time members of the Resourcing Unit, the fifty-six duty-permitting interviewers, the twenty-one part-time backgrounders and the psychologists and finally the Staff Sergeant of the Professional Development Centre, who inherits the new hires.

5.

The chain of command or reporting structure put in place within Human Resources in the correlation of the Outreach Recruiting Team and the Resourcing Unit needs to be re-visited, clearly defined and workable.

6.

A respectful workplace environment must be properly managed, maintained and championed when putting staff through any change process within the Ottawa Police Service.

7.

The investment of an Inspector rank in charge of a Sergeant and a four member recruiting team doing outreach within the community needs to be re-visited and substantiated.

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8.

Any member put in charge of changing any existing process within the Ottawa Police Service should, at the very least, have certification, training, professional experience and at a minimum consult with an expert in that field in how that process already works, why it works the way it does and what the consequences are of creating change with that process.

9.

As per Recommendation #1, the number of full time staff working in the Resourcing Unit must be re-visited and adjusted accordingly. At present, there is only one full time civilian doing what was the work of two constables, one sergeant and one civilian staff member.

10. Any member who is or has been a certified interviewer or backgrounder under the Constable Selection System can be allowed to be a member of the Outreach Recruiting Team, however they can no longer actively participate in doing Essential Competency Interviews or Background Investigations.

11. A Code of Behaviour defining what behaviour is allowed or not in the professional relationships between recruiters, resourcing unit staff, interviewers, backgrounders and candidates or potential candidates should be developed. The Code of Behaviour should be a part of a members introduction into the Recruitment Process.

12. Rules must be developed, along with consequences, around the appropriate conduct within the process to protect the integrity and confidentiality of the candidates files. Questions must be answered and appropriate conduct agreed to as to: d. e. f. Who has the right to access the confidential files and at what stages throughout the process? Who can do what with the information in those confidential files? Who can share information from those files and with whom?

13. The use of the present Essential Competency Interview should be re-visited and it must be determined if the Ottawa Police Service will continue to use it as part of its recruitment process.

14. Should the Essential Competency Interview be retained then all Interviewers must be re-trained. This training should clearly address the distinction between candidate selection and obtaining information for validation purposes for the background investigation.

15. If the Ottawa Police Service determines that it will continue to use the Essential Competency Interview then all examples given by a candidate through the Essential Competency Interview must be validated.

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16. If the Ottawa Police Service determines that it will continue to use the Essential Competency Interview then interviewers, in collaboration with the Staff Sergeant in charge of the Resourcing Unit, must regularly review the examples being given by candidates in response to the interviewers questions. If an example of a competency is being used excessively by candidates and it is apparent that the use of this example is bringing the credibility of our process into disrepute then it should be decided to not accept that particular example when presented by a candidate. Also, if the example used is so generic as to not be unique to their own personal experience and it is apparent that the use of this example is bringing the credibility of our process into disrepute then it should be decided to not accept that particular example when presented by a candidate.

17. If the Ottawa Police Service determines that it will continue to use the Essential Competency Interview then the entire working relationship between the interviewers and the background investigators must be re-visited and adjusted accordingly. Many interviewers indicated that they are rarely contacted for further information or clarification by background investigators. If the focus of the interviews is to switch from weeding-people-out to obtaining-information-forvalidation-purposes, then there has to be stronger partnerships and discussions between interviewers and backgrounders about candidates.

18. The routing and review process to recommend candidates for final approvals must include checks and balances. As one example of how this could be done, we recommend the following manner: a) The final recommendation of candidates should be proposed through a case conference involving the Staff Sergeant in charge of the Resourcing Unit as the lead and a select number of staff from the Outreach Recruiting Team and the Resourcing Unit. b) After the case conference, once candidates are identified, then the involved background investigators, interviewers, recruiters or champions should also be consulted for what further information they can share with the Staff Sergeant. c) If there are issues about the candidate to be addressed then these must be addressed before it is moved forward. d) If the issues cannot be addressed then the Staff Sergeant will meet with the Inspector to bring them into the loop as to what the issues are and receive direction to proceed or not. e) If the candidate has a rock-solid file then the file is simply reviewed, signed off by the Staff Sergeant who turns it over to the Inspector. f) If the candidates issues are addressed then the file is brought to the Inspector with a note that there were issues that had to be addressed in order to bring the file forward. The Inspector will review the issues to be personally satisfied to move the file forward or not.

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g) If the candidate has a rock-solid file then the Inspector can provide the Superintendents with a simple voice-over candidate profile so that the Superintendents are aware of whom the candidate is. This can be done by e-mail. h) If there were issues with the file that have been addressed and the candidate is now being recommended for hire, the Inspector then brings the file along with an attached voiceover candidate profile to a case conference with the Superintendents. If the Superintendents chose to read past the voice-over profile, then the file is there for them to see. If the Superintendents have any questions about the issues they wished clarified then the Inspector and, if need be, the Staff Sergeant can respond accordingly before the Superintendents sign off.

19. The Outreach Recruitment Team should be made a permanent section within the Ottawa Police Service with its mandate and working relationships, roles and responsibilities, workflow processes including links and reporting structure reviewed every five years. This will ensure that their mandate will remain current with demographic changes within the community. There is no doubt whatsoever in speaking with community members, other police agencies, interviewers, backgrounders, recruits and potential recruits along with every other person we interviewed that there is great value to the existence of our very own Outreach Recruiting Team. They are a solution to a situation and strongly supported both internally and externally.

20. Identify a working committee to review the continued use or not of the Constable Selection System in its entirety. There are many police services, which do not use all or some of the existing Constable Selection System. In addressing our recruiting needs the Ottawa Police Service should not try to fit their needs to the recruiting process, but rather find and fit the process to meet their needs.

21. Both the Resourcing Unit and the Outreach Recruiting Team should be working out of the same office at the same location, planning their approach together and working as a team, as one unit, to achieve the same goal.

22. There must be annual statistical reports showing data that reflects the work of the Outreach Recruiting Team and the Resourcing unit. The data to be captured can be determined by Management.

23. Review the continued use of the MMPI-2 as the single source test for candidates. It is advisable to include an additional objective test to ensure that all candidates are given an opportunity to present not just a flavour of their personality but also traits that are necessary to perform the job. It is imperative that candidates of various ethnic groups are no longer exposed to a potential disadvantage of a

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single test especially when that test may be amplifying culturally normative behaviours to be pathological. They need to be provided with the opportunity to present themselves beyond profile obtained from the current test (MMPI-2) and offer a more rounded picture of their psychological competencies. Whereas the MMPI-2 is the mandated test, there is certainly no restriction in including an additional test, which would facilitate an understanding and clarification of any questionable profiles whether they are the result of ethnic or other issues. We recommend that the Ottawa Police Service seek the advice of its Service Psychologists for this task.

Our review of the process and the issues identified has been presented to you along with our recommendations in summary. The following section reveals supportive evidence for each of the issues presented to us, and the reasons for our recommendations.

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APPENDIX A PREAMBLE and QUESTIONS

Thank you for meeting with us today. My name is: and with me is :

As mentioned by Chief White under General Order # 2007-268, our team is to conduct evaluations of work and processes undertaken in 2006-2007 by the Outreach Recruitment Project. The evaluation will focus on quality assurance with respect to the recruiting process.

We are not an investigative team. In order for us to receive the information freely we assure you of nondisclosure of source. No participants will be identified in the final report which when completed will be turned over to our Executive Designate, Deputy Chief Larry Hill. The same treatment anyone would expect if they were part of a focus group, as an example.

We are talking to you today for two reasons. One, you are or have been a part of the recruiting process and two, we believe that you may be able to comment personally in areas we wish to evaluate based on your own personal experience.

There is no time limit to this discussion. Take your time and feel free to share with us as much information as possible, so that the report we produce will be an accurate reflection of your experiences with the recruiting process. We may ask you to clarify or to expand on some of your comments only to ensure that we have a clear understanding of what it is you are telling us.

Before we begin, do you have any questions you wish to ask of us? To start our first question is: 1) How long have you been a member of the Ottawa Police Service? 2) Have you worked for any other police service prior to joining Ottawa and for how long? 3) What is your current role in the OPS Constable Selection System, (interviewer) (backgrounder) (resourcing member) (recruiter)? a) Are you currently active?

b) How long have you had this role? 4) Have you had any other role(s) in the Constable Selection System (interviewer) (backgrounder) (resourcing member) (recruiter)? a) Are you currently active?

b) How long have you had this role? 5) What do you understand to be the overall purpose of your role as (interviewer) (backgrounder) (resourcing member) (recruiter) in the Constable Selection System?

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6) What do you understand to be the overall purpose of the Outreach Recruitment Project? 7) What do you understand to be the specific objectives and goals of the Outreach Recruiting Team? 8) What do you understand to be the specific responsibilities and activities of the Outreach Recruiting Team members? 9) What are the assets of having the Outreach Recruiting Team Program? 10) What are liabilities and/or concerns of having the Outreach Recruiting Team Program? 11) Tell us what you know about information that is available to the public for preparing for the ECI or entering into the Constable Selection System process. 12) Do you have a sense that the membership of the Ottawa Police Service understands your role as (interviewer) (backgrounder) (resourcing member) (recruiter) and that of the Outreach Recruitment Project? 13) Do you have a sense that the membership of the Ottawa Police Service understands the role of the new Outreach Recruiting Team Program? 14) Do you feel that the mandate and overall purpose of the Outreach Recruiting Team Program needs to be changed? (Explain) 15) Do you have any recommendations on the current operation of the Recruitment Process within the Ottawa Police Service overall? 16) Do you have any recommendations on the current operation of the Constable Selection System overall? 17) Do you have any recommendations on the current operation of the Outreach Recruiting Team Program overall? 18) Would you like to share anything more with us about the recruitment process in general? 19) Is there anyone else you think we should speak to?

OPS Internal Recruitment Process Review Recruit Questions

1) How long have you been interested in a career in policing? 2) Had you applied to other police services prior to being hired by the Ottawa Police Service? 3) Have you had any experience being mentored by any other police service recruitment team prior to joining OPS? If so, please elaborate (when, how, by whom). 4) Were you mentored by the OPS outreach recruitment team? If so, by whom? 5) Can you outline specifically how you were mentored and how you felt during this process? 6) Did you feel that the mentoring offered, prepared you for the hiring process at OPS? If so, please elaborate (how?). 7) What do you understand to be the role of the outreach recruitment team at OPS? 8) What are the assets of having the outreach recruitment team? 9) What are the liabilities of having the outreach recruitment team?

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10) Tell us what you know about information that is available to the public for preparing for the ECI, or entering in the Constable Selection System process? 11) Do you have a sense that the general public understands that the Ottawa Police Service is committed to being an Employer of Choice and that one of its core values is valuing diversity? If so, please elaborate. 12) What does having the Ottawa Police Service be reflective of the community it serves mean to you? 13) Do you get a sense that the OPS outreach recruitment team is available to anyone who needs support? 14) Do you have any recommendations on how to improve the current operations: a) The outreach and mentoring of potential candidates

b) The processing of candidates file at OPS Human Resources. c) Any portion of the Constable Selection System ATS, LFI, ECI, Psych, Background, Medical, Job Offer, etc). 15) Would you like to share anything else with us in general about your experience of being recruited and hired by the Ottawa Police Service? 16) Is there anyone else you think we should speak to about this topic?

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APPENDIX B CONSTABLE SELECTION SYSTEM

STAGE 1 Outreach Strategies/ Plan STAGE 2
Recruitment, Job Awareness, Self Selection

Standardized Tests

4.1
Distribute Applicant registration Form

a. b. c. d.

STAGE 3 Applicant Registration Submission

Registration, Release of Information, Survey, PAR-Q/PARmed-X Forms Collect Applicant Fee of $288.90

Aptitude Test (AT) 3 years Written Communication test (WCT) 3 years Physical Readiness Evaluation for Police (PREP) 6 months Vision and Hearing (optional to defer to 4.2)

4.2
a. b. Behavioural Personnel Assessment Device for Police (B-PAD) Video Based Simulation 3 years Vision and hearing (if not done in 4.1)

STAGE 4 Assessment
Screen Registration

NOTE: The fee for retest if unsuccessful is $60.35 per test.

If Successful a... CERTIFICATE OF RESULTS is issued. INTERVIEW / POST INTERVIEW ASSESSMENT STAGE 5 Interview Process
Application Submission

5.1 Essential Competency Interview (ECI)

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Analytical Thinking Self-confidence Communication Flexibility / Valuing Diversity Self-control Relationship building Achievement orientation Medical / Physical Skills and Abilities

STAGE 6 Background Reference Check Psychological Assessment MMPI-2

Personal History Form

5.2 PRE-BACKGROUND QUESTIONNAIRE (PBQ) REVIEW

5.3 Developmental / Local Focused Interview (LFI)
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Information seeking Concern for Safety Assertiveness Initiative Cooperation Negotiation / Facilitation Work Organization Community-service orientation Commitment to learning Organizational Awareness Developing Others

STAGE 7 Final Selection Decision

Final Medical

STAGE 8 Probationary Appointment

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APPENDIX C
SeaGlassPsychologicalServices Dr.LynetteMonteiro Psychologist 595 Montreal Road Suite 305 Ottawa ON K1K 4L2 Tel: (613) 745-5366 Fax: (613) 745-1186 lynettemonteiro@ottawamindfulnessclinic.com Confidential Staff Sgt. S. Gravel Ottawa Police Service 474 Elgin Street 2nd Floor Ottawa ON K2P 2J6

November 8, 2007 Dear S/Sgt. Gravel: In the context of the ongoing discussions related to the psychological assessment of police service candidates, the following may be beneficial to consider with the intention of ensuring that the psychological assessment process meets the standards of psychological best practice. The psychological assessment at this time is comprised of the MMPI-2 personality questionnaire, the PSEC demographic history questionnaire, and the semi-structured interview. In 1998 the International Association of Chiefs of Police presented 22 recommendations for a comprehensive framework for preemployment psychological evaluations. (Craig, 2005). The recommendations were (a) (b) (c) objective assessment instruments that have been validated for use with public safety applicants, the requirement of a semi-structured clinical interview, and the need to continually validate the criteria used to determine applicant suitability.

These recommendations are consistent with the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists (Third Edition, 2000, section IV 1 through 31; http://www.cpa.ca/cpasite/userfiles/Documents). The assessment of any person is comprised of an objective set of tests that provide an unbiased perspective of the candidate placed in the context of the referral question (suitability for police service). To ensure accuracy it must be a valid and reliable test for the population considered and its results should be congruent with the job demands expected of the candidate. An assessment protocol should include both objective tests and an opportunity to clarify and expand on any anomalies of the objective tests. Validity of the MMPI-2 with current applicants The MMPI-2 has been mandated as part of the Constable Selection process to serve as the objective assessment instrument and has been validated for use with public safety applicants. It has been extensively researched and certain profiles have been shown to correlate with problematic behaviours of police officers. Thus, a profile that exceeds the acceptable cutoff scores on the MMPI-2 can be considered to have validity in determining the risk level of hiring a candidate. Nevertheless, the MMPI-2 has been criticized because of the poor representation of ethnic groups in its normative data and questionable profiles produced by some ethnic groups that may be related to ethnic particulars rather than global personality factors. Some of these concerns have been addressed more than adequately in the research of the last decade. The MMPI-2 continues to be accepted as a valid and reliable tool in the prediction of personality factors.

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The issues that have not been addressed continue to be critical ones related to the interaction of ethnic factors and the intrinsic nature of the test. In our paper presented to the Canadian Forum of Police Psychologists (September 2007), we indicated that certain ethnic groups are more vulnerable to producing invalid profiles, not because they are deliberately or in an unsophisticated manner manipulating the responses but because there may be cultural obstacles to answering certain questions (e.g., shaming the culture by acknowledging certain actions can occur). Ethical issues related to decision-making based on a single test A strong assessment of the candidate will attempt to discern if the candidate has traits necessary for the successful performance of the job and the personality traits that have been associated with success as a police officer. The MMPI-2 is acceptable as an instrument that determines the latter. Personality traits derived from the MMPI-2 are associated with success as a police officer (as well as traits predictive of lower success) and the research, as mentioned above, is well-established. Work Analyses have indicated traits necessary for the successful performance of the job. These are summarized from Craig (2005): thoroughness and attention to detail a strong work ethicdependability and reliability and little absenteeism sensitivity and flexibility in a broad array of situations good decision-making skills, and emotional stability Other traits include (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) (h) (i) (j)

good judgement and discretion in stressful situations high stress tolerance professional appearance show proper initiative a positive work attitude cooperative a degree of suspiciousness ability to be in a state of continual preparedness to respond appropriately loyalty to peers ability to comply with authoritarian nature of police administration

Vulnerability and inadequacy of the current protocol At this time, the assessment protocol which relies solely on the personality traits does not include a determination of the candidates ability to perform the job. This lack in the assessment creates question as to the accuracy of the assessment process. It may also present a large target for any litigation that challenges any decision made of a candidates unsuitability. Argument can be made that the MMPI-2 in and of itself does not represent a fair assessment of a candidates ability to meet the job requirements because it only determines the candidates personality traits as a global profile unconnected to job requirements. (The semi-structured interview is intended to address this issue however it is not in the rubric of an objective test.) Furthermore, given the sensitivity of cultural issues and the vulnerability of the MMPI-2 to criticisms related to ethnic representation, it is important to consider the risks to certain ethnic groups if the MMPI-2 is the sole tool used for determining their suitability. That is, ethnic groups already meet obstacles in terms of adapting to cultural mindsets and ways of interacting. Ironically, including further testing does not

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create the disadvantage. To offer only one path through which they can present their strengths is what places diversity groups at a disadvantage (Evans, 1997). Recommendations It is advisable to include an additional objective test to ensure that all candidates are given an opportunity to present not just a flavour of their personality but also traits that are necessary to perform the job. It is imperative that candidates of various ethnic groups are no longer exposed to a potential disadvantage of a single test especially when that test may be amplifying culturally normative behaviours to be pathological. They need to be provided with the opportunity to present themselves beyond the profile obtained from the current test (MMPI-2) and offer a more rounded picture of their psychological competencies. Whereas the MMPI-2 is the mandated test, there is certainly no restriction in including an additional test which would facilitate an understanding and clarification of any questionable profiles whether they are the result of ethnic or other issues. (I have made several recommendations for the use of the NEO-PIR which is currently used in several security and police services.) If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. With Regards, L. M. Monteiro, Ph.D., C. Psych.

Reference Craig, Robert (2005). Personality-Guided Forensic Psychology. American Psychological Association, Washington DC USA. Canadian Psychological Association (2000). Canadian Code of Ethics, Ottawa Canada. Evans, David (1997). The Law, Standards of Practice, and Ethics in the Practice of Psychology. Emond Montgomery Publications Ltd., Toronto Canada. Monteiro, L. and R.F. Musten (2007). Validity Issues in Ethnic Groups: What in L is going on? Presentation at the Canadian Forum for Police Psychologists, Toronto Canada.

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APPENDIX D
Outreach Recruitment Project Goals and Objectives - July 21st, 2003. The overall objective of the Outreach Recruitment Project is to design and implement recruitment strategies that will result in the hiring of staff that will better serve groups that are currently not represented or are under-represented within the Ottawa Police Service. The project will result in the establishment of an Outreach Recruitment Program for on-going operation within the OPS, with the objective to succeed in recruiting OPS employees that will reflect the communitys diversity. Specific objectives of the project are to: 1. Establish strategic targets for recruitment of employees to increase the capacity of the OPS to provide service to diverse groups within the community. 2. Assess current recruitment processes and tools to identify means of measuring effectiveness of the Recruitment Outreach initiatives in attracting applicants of the target groups. 3. Establish the foundation for on-going outreach processes that will become part of the normal OPS operation. This long-term Outreach Recruitment Strategy will include the development of a communication campaign to reach targeted groups within the community. 4. Develop an internal outreach program to identify key individuals that will represent the OPS during community outreach initiatives. Selected representatives will ideally reflect the targeted audiences within the community. The culmination of the work by the Outreach Recruitment Project is the following 17 recommendations: 1. Add an Organizational Value that states the Ottawa Police Service is committed to a diverse and non-discriminatory police service. 2. Create a permanent Ottawa Police Service Diversity Advisory Council (DAC), whose role will be to ensure that diversity is an integral part of every aspect of the Ottawa Police Service management policies and practices. 3. Develop a comprehensive internal and external communications strategy in support of the goals for the diversification of the Ottawa Police Service. 4. 5. Establish measurable diversity goals and tracking mechanisms. Perform a comprehensive review of Ottawa Police recruitment processes, with the objectives of removing barriers to diversity hiring and compile data on unsuccessful applicants, from all stages of the Ottawa Police recruitment process, including ATS testing stages. 6. 7. Review the recruitment processes for Civilian employees to ensure that it is consistent and bias-free. Establish a mechanism to ensure that all board interviewers understand and demonstrate competencies in valuing diversity, flexibility, leadership and service orientation. 8. Develop a plan to review all policies and procedures to ensure that they are fully inclusive and respect diversity.

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9.

Develop a formal Employee Orientation Program for all new employees.

10. Develop an Employee Mentoring program that recognizes the needs of a diverse workplace. 11. Review dependant-care initiatives that reflect the needs of Ottawa Police Service employees. 12. Establish processes and a framework to support supervisory accountability to address inappropriate employee behaviour with respect to workplace harassment and discrimination. 13. Integrate diversity content into all Ottawa Police training. 14. Bolster existing or, where warranted, establish formal and informal mediation mechanisms for public complaints. 15. Establish a Coach Officer selection process that includes competencies in valuing diversity, flexibility, leadership, communication and service orientation. 16. Research and review the option of reimbursing recruit-training costs, contingent on a fixed term of service. 17. Review rewards, compensations and developmental programs for civilian members. In support of the 17 recommendations that are before us, the Outreach Recruitment Project has already launched an innovative new initiative called the Outreach Recruitment Champion Program. Innovative in that each recruitment team not only comprises of both a sworn and a civilian member but also a member of the community who will assist in reaching out to the various and diverse communities within our City.

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APPENDIX E
Research findings from Natalya Kuziak submitted a report to the Ottawa Police Service entitled, Ottawa Police Service, Outreach Recruitment Project, Internal Focus Group Final Report, March 4th, 2004.

1.

The recruiting process, including the waiting period between a successful interview and a job offer, and then beginning training, is too long.

2. 3. 4.

The OPS does not keep applicants adequately informed of their status in the recruitment process. The OPS may be hiring over-qualified recruits and creating job expectations that are too high. The OPS do not have an adequate selection process for job applicant interviewers and interviewers do not have enough experience or training.

5.

The OPS may not be doing enough to encourage and assist applicants with the difficult application process.

6. 7.

The competency based interviewing of applicants is too rigid and repetitive. The disadvantage of using an independent testing agency like ATS, does not allow the OPS the opportunity to observe applicants behaviour and attitudes over a period of time.

8. 9.

Some aspects of recruitment process may be culturally biased. The cost of applying to the police and the cost of Police College may be deterrents. .

10. The OPS does not have a very visible recruiting function

Also the findings showed:

1.

Many participants felt that police officers were the best recruiters because of their daily contact with community members and therefore officers should be promoting the job in the community whenever possible. As discussed above in Section 3.1.1 on recruitment weaknesses No. 8, participants felt the ORP should provide better communications to patrol officers about the recruitment goals and processes and even have information on recruitment on their cruiser laptops.

2.

All participants in the Phase I focus groups liked the idea of having recruitment champions among police officers to promote policing careers in the community. In each of these groups participants felt that if the organization wishes to reach under represented groups, its recruitment champions must include officers who are members of the under represented groups, that is, visible minorities, women, and gays and lesbians. They also cautioned that without some form of recognition and compensation as well as support from supervisors for recruitment champions, this strategy may not be very successful.

3.

Participants in all focus groups suggested that the logical way to attract more culturally diverse applicants is to approach all the cultural groups in Ottawa go to their community organizations, community events, religious temples, discussion forums and ethnic or religious schools to promote

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policing careers with the OPS. When the OPS conducts presentations or sets up recruitment booths at events and community locales, it should be officers, not civilians, who are present and these officers should be culturally diverse as well.

4.

In a similar vein, participants in the gay and lesbian focus group suggested that the OPS approach gay and lesbian associations and continue to participate in gay and lesbian community events, such as the Gay Pride Parade. In addition, they felt it would show tremendous openness for the OPS to advertise in gay and lesbian publications and to have officers visit gay and lesbian establishments, such as bars and book stores and leave recruiting cards behind, similar to those distributed during the Gay Pride Parade.

5.

Participants in several groups indicated that it was necessary to ask community leaders and representatives of community groups to act as spokespeople for the police to promote careers in policing to their communities. In addition, the OPS must maintain contact and strong ties with the community leaders and representatives of diverse groups.

6.

Several groups, including the open focus groups and one all women group, suggested that the OPS should make the job more accessible to women by solving child care problems. For example, the OPS could offer daycare services (other police services such as Orillia and Smiths Falls offer 24 hour daycare), extended maternity and paternity leave, and additional job sharing opportunities.

7.

In two of the open groups, participants suggested that outreach should include lectures and presentations on policing to university and college students, particularly at the faculties that are likely to have willing candidates, such as commerce and arts faculties. Student unions and student associations may also be good organizations to contact. Others felt that it might also be particularly beneficial to expose young people in high school (targeting grades nine and ten) to policing careers, before they decide on a career or educational path.

8.

One group thought the OPS should conduct more visible marketing and advertising campaigns (e.g., on local public transportation, in local and national publications).

9.

Finally, in several groups, particularly in those groups held specifically with women, visible minorities and gays and lesbians, participants stressed that the leadership of the OPS must show visible support for all the Outreach initiatives. For example, women officers wanted their supervisors to support them on issues of sexual harassment or prejudice and to deal with such instances as they occur so that such behaviour is discouraged. Gay and Lesbian members wanted the continued presence of Executive members at events and on committees supporting the gay and lesbian community.

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APPENDIX F

Testing or Recruiting Where Should the Emphasis Be?

By Staff Sergeant Syd Gravel 2007

It is not a question of whether discrimination is motivated by intentional desireor by accidental byproduct of innocently motivated practices or systems. If the barrier is affecting certain groups in a disproportionately negative way, it is a signal that the practices that lead to this adverse impact may be discriminatory. That is why it is important to look at the results of a system.16

Despite everything that police recruiters are doing today many of them are feeling the negative effects of not being able to build a police agency that reflects the diversity of the communities in which they police. In Canada, recruiters struggle every day with the task of diversifying each new recruit class. For the most part they are unsuccessful. In spite of the fact that there may not be a duty to give anyone a job17, the Police Services Act of Ontario, and many other regulations for police services throughout Canada, do expect its police services to reflect the diversity of the communities they serve. To gain a more in-depth understanding at why there is a failure to diversify police services we must look at their recruiting practices with a critical view.

For well over a hundred years police services have traditionally hired from those who have simply applied. When hiring was required, officers assigned to the selection process would review the applications on file; determine which were the best candidates for the job; and recommended those most qualified to their Chiefs. In recent years police services have started to question the validity of their recruiting processes based on those past practices. Something more precise and defendable had to be done to validate the selection criteria.

There are two major stages to the recruiting process for police officers. One is the testing process itself; the second is the recruiting of candidates into its pool of applicants. So, is it the testing process or the recruiting process that may be discriminatory to women, visible minorities, gays, lesbians, or aboriginals, since there is no noticeable success in hiring from these groups?

One testing process that exists, as an example for discussion, is the Constable Selection System used by most police services in the Province of Ontario. This process reflects many of the tests used in recruitment by most police services in Canada today.

16 Judge Rosalie Arbella, Defining Equality in Employment, Business Ethics In Canada, Prentice Hall, Scarborough, 1999, p.253 17 Jan Narveson, Have We a Right to Non-Discrimination; Business Ethics in Canada, 3rd Edition, Deborah C. Poff, Wifrid J. Waluchow, Prentice Hall Allyn and Bacon, Scarborough, 1999, p.270,

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Through extensive research and an inclusion of partners from the communities, police services and associations, a series of studies funded by the Ministry of Public Safety and Security was established in the early 1990s. Its mandate was to determine what constitutes the basic requirements to become a police officer. Furthermore, once those basic requirements were identified they challenged the validity of each requirement to ensure that it was a bona fide occupational requirement. In other words, applicants could not be asked to prove they had a competency to do something if those already doing the job didnt need the competency themselves. A series of tests were developed; each test validated by extensive research to defend its requirement and all tests were linked to essential competencies also identified as required to do the job.

Assuming that everything that could be done by this system was done to eliminate barriers to any applicant, then the police have done what they can to ensure that there is nothing stopping anyone, from any community, from becoming a police officer. If we accept that statement as valid, the question becomes, why are the police no further ahead in end results?

Because all that has been accomplished is a more refined and defendable method of selecting potential candidates again, from the already existing pool of applicants. A pool provided to by mainstream and passive recruiting methods. Using recruiting methods that traditionally have done very little to attract women, visible minorities, gays, lesbians or aboriginals into policing. The first stage of how applicants are tested was addressed; but the second and arguably the most crucial stage of attracting applicants into the pool from the diverse communities have not been addressed. For every one officer hired, ten applicants must enter into the Constable Selection System process. There must therefore be a critical mass of women, visible minorities, gays, lesbians and aboriginals applying to see an end result. Police services may not be discriminatory on their hiring practices but if they cannot attract the right mix of applicants they can certainly appear to be discriminatory in their practices.

It is important to define equality in relation to what the police services may have to do in order to increase that applicant pool and thereby create a successful result.

The law in all its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread18

This law brings into question the complexities of what happens when we talk about equality. By being totally inclusive, both the rich and the poor are treated equally, but are they being treated fairly? To state

18 Anatole France, Le Lys Rouge (the Red Lily). Quoted in John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations. (Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1980), p. 655.

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that a practice is valid as it treats everyone equally; that the rich are as affected by the above-mentioned law as the poor; is ridiculous. No doubt, in some cases treating everyone the same is precisely what is required. Everyone has the right to equal protection under the law, for example. However treating everyone the same all the time and in all circumstances is not always treating everyone equally. Sometimes we have to accommodate their differences to treat them equally. Equality is extremely flexible and must end with a result of fairness. Simply put, if equality is brought down to the basics of everyone being treated fairly it becomes easier to work with.

If we accept this approach it then stands to reason that sometimes police services have to accommodate differences between white males and women, visible minorities, gays, lesbians, or aboriginals in order to be fair. If they do not, they risk denying a difference that makes all applicants equal. A simple example might be the attendance at a certain job-fair. If women, visible minorities, gays, lesbians or aboriginals as a general rule do not attend that particular job-fair, then they are not receiving the same or equal treatment as those who do attend. In fact if the women, visible minorities, gays, lesbians or aboriginal community have their own job-fairs, and they do, then the police, by not attending, are then in fact not inviting women, visible minorities, gays, lesbians or aboriginals to consider policing as a career. Again, no one is assuming a right to a job, but the right to at least be given the same information as the majority of the population in a fair manner is a reasonable expectation.

By not accommodating against that difference, police services may be creating an environment that is unfair for one applicant versus the other. It may not be their intent for it to happen but they certainly can be accused of denying certain potential applicants fair access to information about why they should consider policing as a career. One might argue that the police services only obligation is to make sure that the opportunity to apply is not denied. However, systemic discrimination is measured by the results of a system and the results of the police recruitment classes today is such that they are placing themselves in a position to be accused of discrimination. There are in fact very few visible minorities being hired by police services today considering their number within the make-up of the communities.

Most police services are very sensitive to the accusations of racism and discrimination that are thrown at them. Accusations such as these are very damaging to the police services reputation of being isolated from bias. Services will usually react quickly to these types of accusations. Unfortunately many communities look to the make-up of the police services population, the direct results of recruiting practices, to test the truth of non-bias in a police service. There is no denying that if the police look at the diversity within the services today the end results of their recruiting practices do little to eliminate the communities sense of racism and discrimination.

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So, what can the police services do? As with the first stage, another initiative to address the second major stage of recruitment must be established. Extensive research and an inclusion of partners from the communities, police services, associations and the Government Sectors must be re-established to review recruiting and retention practices.

They can also take steps to create the changes required in order to attract new applicants. The Ottawa Police Service, Ontario, Canada, for example developed 17 steps to creating a more diverse and respectful workplace in partnership with the community and their own members.

By recognizing that some differences have to be accommodated to be fair to those who traditionally dont look to policing; police services can for example include public discussions on what it takes to become a police officer, how the police recruit, what the requirements are and what the benefits are. Candidates need to be re-assured that they can be guided through the process. Not guided through the process by compromising the integrity of the process but at the very least to the point where they understand what they have to do, why they are doing it and what they can expect. To be simply treated fairly compared to those who have grown up with the concepts and have already obtained the information by merely growing up in a familiar environment.

To attract young people into policing today, one example of a barrier that services must recognize is a need for adequate dependant care facilities or accommodations within the police infrastructure. The number of women within police services has slowly increased, but more of them resign compared to males19. With police work requiring a commitment to 7/24 shift work access to childcare for not only women but also single fathers is crucial. Those whose parents are now sick and feeble need to be able to work in an environment that allows them the flexibility to accompany their parents to doctors visits for example. To not have these accommodations is not discriminatory, but if a police service does not have them then they will not attract a potentially important pool of candidates. At some point, someone will ask a police service why they are not hiring more women, and specifically more visible minority or aboriginal men and women and this may be the difference.

Again, the police can argue that the door to a career in policing is open to all applicants, including visible minorities, women, gays, lesbians and aboriginals, but they are not coming through. At the end of the day the results are minimal in the diversification of the police service population. And it is the police who must defend against the perception of racism or bias, not the community. The community is already diverse. It is therefore the police who have the most to gain by acting to address the issue.

19 Pricewaterhouse-Coopers. Strategic Human Resources Analysis of Public Policing in Canada. Ottawa:Canadian Police Association, 2001.

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Police services have changed tremendously over the past ten years and are to be congratulated and encouraged to continue. They cannot however remain passive and traditional in their recruiting practices. They do not deserve the accusations of having discriminatory hiring practices, but if they do not take action in this direction then they risk the accusation of practicing discriminatory hiring. For the community the proof comes simply by looking at the results.

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APPENDIX G RED FLAG

As manager of the Outreach Recruitment Project I had to have the freedom to by-pass the cumbersome reporting assignment matrix that the formal project management process imposes upon a manager, in order to bring to the attention of my superiors issues that had to be dealt with quickly and decisively or else there was a concern that by respecting the normal course of events we could endanger to success of our work. When I did that we called it a Red Flag. I only issued 3 such Red Flags during the entire 5 years of the project, all of them related to the need for active recruiting. This was the first one.

From: Gravel, Sylvio Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 12:04 PM To: Roy, Christine; Frazer, Debra; Hill, Larry Subject: Follow up on Red Flag Issue Dear Christine, Debra and Larry, To follow up with the Red Flag Issue for the activation of an immediate recruiting team I though it would be appropriate for you to have sense of what I think the team should be tasked with. Listed below is a list of their expected activities: 1. The development of multi-language newsletters on "What's Happening in Recruiting" for our visible minority communities. 2. Immediate follow-up and "buddying" with each and every applicant from the VM/ F/ A/ GLBT communities. 3. Participating, creating, and initiating career fairs within all the visible minority communities 4. Working with Churches, social agencies, community groups one-on-one to develop contacts, links and meetings with potential recruits from the visible minority communities. 5. Follow up on all internet applications from our visible minority communities. 6. Home visits and work-shops for individuals from the visible minority communities 7. Information sessions specifically with the visible minority applicants, along with some general information sessions for the applicants at large. 8. Lectures at High Schools, Colleges and Universities. 9. Visiting and talking to families of potential applicants from the visible minority communities. 10. Supporting the Outreach Recruitment Project.

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APPENDIX H
June 2005 Chiefs Verbal Report to the Board

Introduction of Outreach Recruitment Champions

As Board members are aware, our Outreach Recruitment Project is a long-term strategic priority for our Police Service. The Project aims to find ways to recruit and retain qualified applicants while addressing our organizations need for diversity.

One of the pivotal elements of the Project is our Outreach Recruitment Champions. The Champions include sworn and civilian members of the Ottawa Police Service, as well as community members and leaders. The objective of the Champions is to identify individuals who are suitable for and interested in a policing career, encourage them to apply and support them through the recruitment process once they are hired. This joint community-police partnership in recruitment is a groundbreaking initiative by our Service.

This new approach to recruiting will help to bring into our Service officers and civilian members who can communicate in the languages that are spoken in our neighbourhoods, understand and appreciate the cultures that are alive on our streets, and thereby strengthen our links with those we serve and protect.

I look forward to working with all of our Champions and, as an organization, we will be looking to you to lead the way. Please join me in welcoming and congratulating the first of our Outreach Recruitment Champions.

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APPENDIX I 'They think it's still a white man's job'

Women, minorities face harassment on city police force Alex Munter The Ottawa Citizen

Saturday, November 13, 2004 Female and minority police officers face on-the-job harassment and are far less likely than their white male colleagues to be satisfied with their working conditions, according to two internal Ottawa police reports obtained by the Citizen. Interviews and focus groups with 116 employees paint a picture of a mostly male workplace struggling to adapt to a changing city. The findings show: - Only 38 per cent of women say they are happy in their jobs, compared to two-thirds of men. - All of the women interviewed have considered leaving the police, a few for family reasons, but mostly because of frustration over harassment and limited opportunities. - Minorities and women adhere to a "code of silence," failing to complain about harassment for fear of repercussions. - Most white officers surveyed disagree with the goal of making the police's composition more closely reflect the community's. "My personal opinion of this is that people having different cultures on the force doesn't make it a better police force," the report quotes one officer as saying. "The person that's going to back me up on a call may not be the best candidate and shouldn't have been hired at the time, but was because the person was a minority." A minority officer told interviewers: "They have the fundamental belief that policing is still a white man's job. Fundamentally, they don't think that we can do the job because traditionally we have not had those jobs. To them, a police officer is this six-foot-two white male coming through the door and taking charge of the situation." The two reports were conducted last year by police staff and Carleton University. The Carleton University report, conducted by the Eric Sprott School of Business, described the police culture as "unchanging, unwelcome and unitary." The staff report concluded that "visible minorities, women and, to some extent gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered members, experience discrimination and harassment." "Some of those comments are kind of stinging. It's not the kind of organization I thought we had," said Chief Vince Bevan. "I was surprised to see the frequency of those kinds of comments. "I thought we were past that."Chief Bevan says he believes it is possible to overcome resistance to hiring more women and minorities by making the case for diversity based on the nuts and bolts of police work. With 18 per cent of Ottawans belonging to racial minority communities and the city's future population growth coming largely from immigration, the city needs a more diverse police service simply to be able to do its job, he said. "To win the hearts and minds of people, you need to be able to point to a good operational reason," he said.

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The Ottawa police has about 1,500 employees, two-thirds of whom are sworn officers. About 26 per cent of officers are women. There are no statistics on the number of aboriginal, gay, lesbian and racial minority officers, but they are estimated to six or seven per cent of the force. From 2000 to 2003, there were 294 new officers hired. Of those, 69 were women (24 per cent). Again there are no figures on minorities. Chief Bevan said investigating crimes means being able to speak to minority communities. "Crime in those communities affects all of us and, to be effective, we have to have the capacity to deal with those issues." Sgt. Charles Momy, head of the police association, agrees. "From a police perspective -- as a former investigator myself -- it's the issue of languages. When our members delve into different communities and we can't get into those diverse communities, that's when you really do realize there's a problem." Both management and union agree that recruiting more women and minority officers is only half the job. "It can't be an exercise to get them in, have them unhappy and then see them leave," said Chief Bevan. "There's certainly a sense out there from minority members who are leaving that they weren't supported by their police association or by the police service," said Sgt. Momy. "In most cases, it was the treatment they were getting from their co-workers, surpervisors and so on." Carl Nicholson, executive director of the Catholic Immigration Centre, fears "we're going to have a rough time persuading young people from racial minorities to join the police force. Young people will do their own research and find out people aren't happy there." "It's not a recruitment and hiring issue, it's a retention issue," said Mr. Nicholson, who also co-chairs the force's new recruitment outreach committee. Staff Sgt. Syd Gravel, who is quarterbacking police recruitment efforts, said feedback from employee focus groups was sobering. "I remember being very uncomfortable reading all those reports. I was losing my enthusiasm about recruiting. "Issues of harassment, discrimination, abuse of power in promotions -- we have to continue looking at all those things," he said. "Recruiting is putting the cart before the horse. You have to have a welcoming organization in order for recruitment to work." As a result of the Carleton University report, a harassment prevention campaign has been rolled out to crack down on abusive behaviour in the workplace. On Monday, the force will launch a three-year push to attract more women and minorities. Staff Sgt. Gravel is co-ordinating the effort, which will see police and community "champions" promote careers in policing. "What we've been doing for 160 years is nothing more than processing the applications of people already attracted to policing," he said. "If you come from communities where policing is not viewed as attractive or productive, you won't apply." Staff Sgt. Gravel said hiring standards won't change. The goal is to have a much larger group of applicants to select from.

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As an example, Chief Bevan notes his service has just two Chinese-Canadian officers, despite the community's growing presence in Ottawa. "They're not knocking our door down to apply for jobs," he said. "We need to change that." Unlike many public-sector organizations, the police service is in hiring mode. Between growing budgets and retirements, the service expects to hire 390 new officers and 45 more civilian staff in the next five years. In that same period, there will be an estimated 400 internal opportunities for promotion. Chief Bevan believes it is easier to divide a growing pie than a shrinking one. Those resistant to change will see there are still opportunities for them. For example, half of the two dozen newest recruits -- currently being trained at police college -- are women and minorities. "Our pool is going to look very different, but we're still looking for the best," he said. "The people we are hiring are there because they are capable." The Ottawa Citizen 2004

Police trying to change with face of Ottawa

Few things better typify how Ottawa is changing than the new Ottawa police campaign to attract more female and minority officers. Alex Munter The Ottawa Citizen

November 14, 2004 Stodgy, homogenous, sleepy Ottawa is giving way to a new Ottawa. Our 12 local governments have been merged into one, cranes tower over downtown, and we struggle with traffic congestion. There's talk of LeBreton Flats, new concert halls and the Stanley Cup; the latter is delayed but will still happen before the first two. Most visibly, the face of our city is changing. One-third of us either immigrated here or are the children of someone who did. In the last decade, the immigrant population has grown twice as quickly as the overall population. There are about 150,000 members of racial minorities. Perhaps because it is on the front lines of our community 24/7, the Ottawa police is one of the first local institutions to try to come to grips with this change. Tomorrow night at Nepean's Centrepointe Theatre, the police will launch their "recruitment champions" campaign. Teams of three -- a cop, a civilian police employee and a community member -- will fan out across the city to convince women, racial minorities, aboriginals and gays and lesbians to consider a career in policing.

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But it will be a tough sell. As reported here yesterday, two internal police studies show that female and minority police officers often face on-the-job harassment. Most suffer in silence because they fear their careers will be limited if they speak up. Many simply leave. No police service exists in a vacuum. The tensions within the Ottawa police service mirror tensions within our community. How we deal with diversity is one of the biggest issues of our time. Interestingly, it is one of the most conservative institutions in our society -- the police -- that has become one of the first to seize that opportunity. "The police are leading-edge on this," says Mr. Nicholson, who also co-chairs the Community and Police Action Committee. Police Chief Vince Bevan says that when he visits students at Algonquin College's police training centre, he makes his point by getting them to look out the window. "I pull up at the lights on Woodroffe, waiting to turn left, and I watch the human stream go by. It looks much different than it did 10 years ago." What's striking in listening to Chief Bevan talk about recruiting in minority communities is that he focuses on results, not on motivations. Those who argued for affirmative action in the past made the case on the basis of principles like fairness and equality, but today's advocates present the business case. It's not about being nice, it's about being smart. "We must recruit from our immigrant communities, not just because we want to better reflect the makeup of the community at large, but for purely operational reasons," Chief Bevan told a group of South Asian officers in Toronto. "If we can not communicate with victims, who will investigate crimes committed against them? If we can not penetrate organized crime because we can't speak the language and don't understand the culture, who will halt its spread?" The police service expects to hire 390 new officers and 45 more civilian staff in the next five years. Chief Bevan says filling those jobs with the best candidates means trying to get the biggest, broadest pool of applicants possible. It's a lesson business learned long ago. The most innovative and far-reaching recruitment of women and minorities happens in the private sector, particularly among big banks and broadcasters. Does anyone think the Royal Bank set out to recruit minorities and women out of a sense of charity? The private sector has also led the way in understanding that recruitment isn't enough. The internal police reports also contain a warning: simply hiring more minorities doesn't mean you'll be able to keep them on the job. The unhappiness of female officers -- who comprise one-quarter of the Ottawa police -- is disturbing. After three decades of increasing number of female officers, why do most women surveyed still say they find the workplace inhospitable? Why do all women surveyed say they have considered leaving? "Obviously, we have to change the inside of the organization," says Chief Bevan.

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Even the police union, which objected to previous attempts to increase the force's diversity, has cautiously endorsed the new push. "It's an evolution that's going to occur," says union president Charles Momy. Sgt. Momy notes there was little reaction to an e-mail circulated a few weeks ago to announce the new outreach effort. "I expected some kind of fallout from that, but that didn't occur. That is potentially telling me that the mindset is changing. Ten years ago, I would have been shot." Ottawa is becoming a diverse, modern, big city. That means it needs a diverse, modern police force. But Staff Sgt. Syd Gravel, who leads the recruitment effort, warns it won't happen overnight. "We're talking about culture here -- well-instilled, long traditions," he says. "We're talking about five to 10 years before we succeed at turning words into action." Don't take too long, though. Time is running out. In 2011, Ottawa's labour force growth will come exclusively from immigration. By then, it won't be a matter of choice any more. Alex Munter is a visiting professor at the University of Ottawa and former Ottawa city councillor. E-mail him at amunter@uottawa.ca The Ottawa Citizen 2004

Publish Date: Monday, April 25, 2005 Ottawa cops pursuing diversity

A recruitment strategy to serve and protect for the future

Author: Uyen Vu

The figures are stark, even starker than the numbers regularly invoked to illustrate the dilemma employers face as the population ages.

This particular employer, the Ottawa Police Service, is staring at a total turnover of its senior ranks: 100 per cent are set to leave, the majority of them into retirement, within five to 10 years.

But thats not all. Consider those officers who will take their places. An astounding number have less than five years experience 65 per cent of the sworn officers on the front line. Call it a management gap, a leadership gap or a knowledge gap, the situation is critical.

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But rather than ramping up a recruitment drive to draw police candidates from across the country, the Ottawa Police Service is going for an unusual, almost counter-intuitive, solution. Its setting out to recruit from immigrant communities which have traditionally shown little interest in policing. And its doing so by pursuing a strategy to become an employer of choice for all.

Were looking at losing hundreds of years of experience and knowledge with those people who are soon to retire, said police chief Vince Bevan.

And we want to take the steps that are necessary right now to preserve corporate knowledge, to make sure that weve got the people with the skills and knowledge to police what is a very complex community.

Set against that reality is the changing face of the city. One in five residents is born outside of Canada. And while this immigrant population isnt as sizeable as it is in some other municipalities, its still growing at twice the rate of the general population. In the face of this population shift, it became clear that we would not be a legitimate police organization unless we had the capacity to communicate with and understand the diverse population that call Ottawa home, said Bevan.

If we cant communicate with the victims, who was going to investigate crimes committed against them? And if we cant penetrate organized crime because we cant speak the language and dont understand the culture, whos going to halt its spread?

The way that staff sergeant Syd Gravel sees it, when police services talk of recruiting, what they usually mean is processing applications.

If the chief comes to me and says, Weve got to hire 30 people, I go and pull out 200 files from the filing cabinet from people who were naturally attracted to policing. And I go through the files and bring them down to 30 excellent candidates, and we would hire 30 people.

The problem is the names in that filing cabinet resemble less and less the names one encounters on Ottawa streets. But getting people from fast-growing immigrant communities to start filling that cabinet with their resumes was to be no easy task, as many police departments have found. Many immigrants come from nations where the police oppress rather than serve the public. Others arrive in Canada only to find themselves or their youth too often targeted by police using racial profiling. For these communities, a policing career for their children just doesnt come up as an option to consider.

To reach out to these groups, the police service had to examine how it is seen as an employer, said Gravel. The police service launched a process of consultation for community groups to tell us what strategies we

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should put in place to help recruit a police service that reflects the community. The services corporate planning section then put together nine focus groups of officers and civilian staff who were women, visible minorities, gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

Interestingly, the recommendations that came out of the community groups and the ones voiced by police staff in the focus groups were very similar. We were thrilled to see that, said Gravel, because that meant it would not be difficult to convince both insiders and outsiders the organization needed to change.

The police service then approached Carleton Universitys Eric Sprott School of Business to conduct telephone surveys of sworn officers and civilian employees on the changes that management needed to make. By this point, more than 90 recommendations had emerged, which an outreach project team comprising of people from various functions HR, race relations, community relations, corporate communications, among others reworded and merged into 35. The project team then went to the Community and Police Action Committee (COMPAC), a committee of community members that acts as a sounding board on police issues, and then to the outreach program steering committee. By the end of the process, the recommendations were distilled into 17, which formed the blueprint for the services outreach recruitment program.

The project team took the final 17 recommendations to the Police Services Board and made a case for making the first recommendation to be a diverse and bias-free organization one of the 10 organizational values. The board approved, which means that henceforth, the chief is required by the Police Services Act to go to the board every three years and report on how the service is living up to that value.

So now we knew we were entrenched, said Gravel. No matter who comes and goes at the top from this point, this 10th organizational value of diversity and non-discrimination was going to outlast them.

And as for the focus group findings, said Gravel, we decided to go public with it. The results werent flattering, but the public can read on the Ottawa polices website that while white male officers didnt believe the organization had a retention problem, the female officers in the focus groups voiced discontent and a desire to leave the service. Or that civilian employees in the focus group felt the same way. Or that visible minority officers found the recruitment process fair and welcoming, but once on board, felt their peers viewed them as employment equity hires. And on and on.

Its pretty cutting stuff. But what we did was ask, Are we going to keep this under wraps? Or are we going to admit to everybody that we see a problem with our organization? Lets put the skeletons out in public and say, Were sorry, were going to fix this.

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Things might have seemed quiet in the first two years as the service laid out the groundwork, but now the projects are coming out fast and heavy. Theres a volunteer recruiter initiative, in which the police service brings on board people from various communities whove agreed to help the police recruit. A first group of 15 are being trained in May to go out with a pair of police employees, one uniformed and one civilian, to job fairs and career days to speak about policing as a career.

Another program has the Ottawa police teaming up with the Ontario Provincial Police to go into an English-as-a-second-language class to teach young newcomers Criminal Code terminology and to talk up policing as a career.

To help young candidates with entry requirements, the police service is setting up information sessions to prepare people for the aptitude tests, which are set out by the province.

Holding information sessions to explain to young immigrants what the tests are about, or matching up mentors with young candidates to answer their questions one on one, begins to put them on an equal footing to start the application process, said Gravel. Ive not given them anymore than anybody else. Ive not treated them any different. Im just giving them fair play. Its about equity.

To make the case that diversity means reaching out to all, not to some, the police service went one step further and framed all the work in terms of being an employer of choice for all.

Its one thing to recruit people, but unless you have a welcoming organization to make them feel comfortable inside the organization, theyre not going to stay, said Bevan. We wanted to make sure that we had a workplace where they would come, where they would thrive, where they would be successful, and where they would be good ambassadors back to the community about what it was like to work for the Ottawa police service.

Trevor Wilson, president of the Toronto-based diversity consultancy TWI Inc., helped make that link. Although he was initially reluctant to work with police organizations he had prejudices about them being traditional, conservative and reactive he quickly saw that this organization was ahead of the curve.

What he saw at the Ottawa police was a chief who understood that to make a deep-seated change in mindset, a leader had to be out in front championing the change. And contrary to the popular notion that communication on a change initiative is most effective when it cascades from the top down, he saw chief Bevan spend time with both the senior ranks and the staff sergeants the front-line managers in a police organization.

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That to me was enlightened thinking, said Wilson. Most people take their communication from the front-line manager; they dont take it from the website or from what comes down from the senior manager. And for some reason (chief) Vince Bevan knew that. He meets with the staff sergeants on a regular basis and he ensures that they know exactly whats going on in the organization.

The outreach recruitment initiative also benefits from the full support of the union. Ottawa Police Association president Charles Mony said in his own experience as a detective, the police service needs to bring in people from different backgrounds and who speak different languages to be able to do its work properly.

Looking back at the resistance mounted a few decades ago to the hiring of women officers, Mony said, I dont think it will take the 20 years that it took for women to be recognized in policing, for different minority groups from different backgrounds.

I hope it takes only two or three years for people to come to the realization that, you know what, for operational reasons we need it. We need to make sure that the different communities feel theyre listened to, and at the end of the day its the right thing to do.

In terms of gauging the outreach programs success, Wilson said too often, organizations rely on the quantitative measure of representation. Thats only one aspect of success, he said. The other aspects to account for would include whether people within the organization perceive inequity, whether they encounter harassment and discrimination, whether they see themselves having a better or a worse chance for advancement because of their belonging to a group, whether their managers treat them with fairness and respect measures that inevitably relate back to whether police service employees see the service as an employer of choice.

Because representation is only one of the metrics used to measure the recruiting program, that takes it away from the notion that this is about quotas, said Wilson.

And as the organization begins now to develop a census of its workforce, said Gravel, it will take a count not just of the four disadvantaged groups. Were not talking about the look, were talking about diversity in the fullest sense, which would encompass sexual orientation, family status, socio-economic status and more.

We want to find out, Are you a single mother? Do you have parents living at home with you? Are you able to pay your bills? said Gravel. Thats so we understand what we have available in terms of

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resources, because if theres a community meeting at a housing project to address problems around kids raised by a single parent, sending a single-parent officer to that meeting would be more effective in terms of coming up with a solution.

Seeing through an outreach program like this will be expensive, said Gravel, but thats what we need to do in order to fix the problems so that we dont have to devote resources to it later. Thats because at the end of the road, Gravel would like to see the police recruiter go back to processing applications. Because then the filing cabinet will be filled with members of all sorts of communities, and that will become the new tradition.

Publish Date: Monday, October 10, 2005 Diversity recruiting is about getting candidates on equal footing (Guest Commentary)

Ottawa Police Services says traditional recruiting methods outdated in a multicultural society
Author: Syd Gravel

The changing demographics of job candidates and the need for managers to tailor their management styles accordingly is an important concern in todays workforce. But how we recruit in a multicultural society has to change as well.

In policing, the traditional means of recruiting that have suited us well for more than 150 years are no longer appropriate. Newspaper advertisements, shopping mall recruitment booths and the twice-a-year university or college job fairs just dont meet our needs.

Applicant pools are changing not only in terms of education, experience and age. Potential recruits now come from communities that simply dont view policing as a career option or as an honourable profession. This is one of the major reasons why outreach projects will fail if we dont let go of the old ways of recruiting. They will also fail if we do not address retention issues.

I would not suggest that we have to convince people to become police officers; candidates must already possess the desire to wear the badge, otherwise the spirit isnt there to enable them to do a good job.

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What I would suggest is that the policing spirit is indeed in many of our new community members we simply need to learn how to nurture it and at the same time bring about organizational change that will support it.

Police services have a crisis to address: a lack of potential candidates to fill increasing vacant positions. To recruit new applicants in Canadas fast-changing communities, police organizations need to anticipate candidates lack of knowledge in three important areas: their knowledge of the job, their understanding of the competitive process into which they enter, and their awareness of what happens after they are hired.

Zero to minus five: Before recruitment even begins

The objective of any police outreach program is to ensure all candidates who apply are at what I call the zero baseline. In other words, everyone about to enter into a race against 30 other people who are applying for the same position has to feel confident that he is as informed, prepared and qualified as he can be to win that position.

For the most part, people born and raised in Canada have a good, general understanding of how policing in general is done in this country. However, an individuals social, cultural and familial surroundings may affect how she views policing. If this set of perceptions negatively overpowers the first set of understanding, I consider that a minus five, which requires effort on the recruiters part to overcome.

This is not about recruiters making efforts to make a person qualified for the job. Nor is it about recruiters having to convince people to join something they dont want to join. This is about recruiters making an effort to simply address an erroneous perception. Peoples perceptions form their reality. Unless recruiters put in the effort to point out the differences between perceptions and reality, good candidates will not come to the fore.

Minus 10: A candidate enters the recruitment process

The second set of knowledge that has traditionally helped people get into policing is the fact that they know someone in a police service somewhere who is willing to give them advice. They can tap this contact for tips on how to prepare for the hiring process or ideas about policing as a career. They can get a ride-along even more than one if their friend or family acquaintance is willing to help them out. Or they attend a workshop at the community college or the university to get information that they need.

Zero effort required here. The candidate is already well-informed thanks to friends and family connections and needs no further help.

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But some candidates dont have this advantage. It may be that they are too new to the community to have met anyone who works for a police service, or they come from communities that generally dont understand or trust the police.

These people therefore do not have the contacts needed to allow them the opportunity to start on their career path. They are at minus 10. Reaching out to them requires extra effort on the part of police service recruiters.

Recruitment information sessions at colleges and universities are not necessarily comfortable places for some excellent candidates. Sitting in a group of 30 potential candidates may not be the best way for some people to get information they need or raise issues that they do not want to share with strangers. It can indeed be difficult to ask questions, especially if the question touches on societal or cultural perceptions that most others in the class may not share.

Recruiters need to put effort into meeting these people one on one. They can set up special information sessions at venues where potential candidates feel most comfortable. That may mean a discussion over coffee or tea with one or two potential candidates. Our recruiters have had more success with small groups of five or six curious youths, at meetings set up by community leaders, than at job fairs where 500 people walk by our booth.

Candidates born and raised in Canada may already know about the ride-along program. However, someone who doesnt know anyone involved in policing in Canada may find it difficult to access that opportunity. If the person is further fighting a distrust of police, the long and involved application process for a ride-along may seem intrusive.

An effort must be put into making sure all candidates who want this experience are given the opportunity. That means making sure they understand not only what to expect in a ride-along, but also why we ask what we ask in the application process. It helps to have a list of volunteer officers who are championing your recruiting efforts, who can look after the candidate during a ride-along. A call from such an officer after the ride-along goes a long way in helping the recruiter determine the next move with the potential candidate.

Unsuccessful candidates

All recruiters know how complex the process to become a police officer can be. The interview, the tests for physical agility, fitness, aptitude and communications, the background investigations and psych tests are all very intrusive and complex. A person can spend days, weeks and months making his way through the

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process only to be rejected at the very end.

Police organizations today are not good at doing debriefings to explain to candidates why they didnt make the cut. Certainly there are times when police services cannot share the information we have obtained through our work, but people with friends in the business can generally find some explanation about the end result.

But an individual with no such connections, lacking an explanation, may come up with her own ideas and opinions about what went wrong. These ideas will form the persons own explanation of what happened, which the person will share with friends and family. If these versions are spread widely enough, police service recruiters will find all efforts thwarted in the immediate future with that particular community Hence, recruiters must have well-devised strategies to close the files positively on unsuccessful candidates.

It is up to us, as professionally prepared and well-trained members of well-established organizations with years of tradition, to reach out and figure out how to do things correctly. It is not up to individuals with no support, with conflicting traditions or with misconceptions to step up to the plate and figure things out for themselves and fix things for us.

Minus 15: If the candidate becomes an officer

Family and friends take a great deal of pride in candidates who are hired to become police officers. They celebrate the event, help the new officer set up the move to a new community if need be, attend the graduation ceremony and show their pride in the fact that their son or daughter is now a proud member of the local police service.

Zero effort required here. The candidate is already well-supported by friends and family and needs little or no further help.

When a minus 15 candidate is hired, by contrast, there is a very good chance that his family members may be shocked that their child has chosen policing as a profession. They may view the profession through their memories of how police operate in their home country, where perhaps police officers dont make any money unless they are corrupt, or amount to little more than an enforcement arm of a corrupt regime.

Minus 15 candidates may find very little pride exhibited by the family and understandably so. Friends and relatives may not celebrate or even attend the graduation ceremony. In some communities, friends can turn into enemies not only of the recruit but of the family.

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Minus 15 candidates who are hired need a great deal of support from the police service in their transition into policing. This goes beyond recruiting and involves the police training centres, coach officers, supervisors and platoon peers.

Police services that recognize the complexity of recruiting in todays Canada and in their communities in particular will put the resources and expertise required where it is needed. Traditional means of recruiting, which for the most part required not as much effort in recruiting as in processing files, are no longer effective. Its now absolutely essential for recruiters to have an awareness of, and an ability to work with, the changing demographics of Canadian communities, in terms of education, age, religion, socio-economic status, gender, sexual orientation and culture.

The leadership required to support the ever-changing approaches to recruiting is also crucial to the future successes of police services, and that includes moving beyond the usual rhetoric about wanting to reflect the diversity of the community. Its time to bring such statements into reality.

Staff Sergeant Syd Gravel is a recruiter with the Ottawa Police Service.

The changing complexion of Ottawa's police force Groundbreaking survey finds some surprises among the demographics

Const. Abe Kaazan, Staff Sgt. Joan McKenna and Insp. Rick Murphy, left to right, of the Ottawa police are examples of the changing dynamics of the workforce. Photograph by : Julie Oliver, The Ottawa Citizen Mohammed Adam, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Saturday, March 25, 2006

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The Ottawa police service is still very white and male, but a new survey offers a revealing portrait of the rank and file that shatters some myths about the police, even as it hints at a future clash of generations. The groundbreaking workforce survey -- the first of its kind in Canada -- was done to provide a better profile of the Ottawa police officer and help plan for the demands of a growing and changing city. The survey, which will be released Monday night at a Police Services Board meeting, provides some surprising insights into the changing face of the Ottawa force. Results show today's police officers are generally more educated than the community they service. They are also more bilingual, with 49 per cent speaking both English and French, compared to 39 per cent of city residents. About 85 per cent of officers are white, and men outnumber women by more than three-to-one -- 77 per cent to 23 per cent. Only eight per cent are visible minorities, much lower than the 18 per cent of the city as a whole. However, nearly eight per cent are aboriginal, compared to 1.3 per cent for the city. Police officers are also largely attached and spiritual. Three-quarters are married or in common-law relationships. Most are Catholic. And contrary to any macho image, Ottawa officers are more likely than their spouses to handle the child care. They are also an eclectic group, with about four per cent identifying themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender -- twice the number in the city. But perhaps the most telling finding, and one likely to lead to problems and tensions in the future, is the growing generational gap among the officers. The baby boomers who have long been the backbone of the service are now aging and, increasingly, generation Xers are emerging as the new face. Today, 40 per cent of police officers are Xers aged between 35 and 44 years. Another 28 per cent are between 25 and 34 years old and closer in outlook to generation X. Conversely, about a quarter of the workforce consists of baby boomers who will retire in the next 10 years. The coming change raises the prospect of "a clash of cultures," said Debra Frazer, director general of the Ottawa police. "The two groups have different ethics and you are going to have tensions and you have to prepare for them," she said. Deputy Chief Larry Hill echoed the idea. "The generation Xers look at the people of my generation and think we don't understand what's going on. We look at them and say they don't understand what's going on. You see this kind of thing in families and you will always have that kind of tension." The real challenge is to manage the change so it doesn't become painful or destructive, said Deputy Chief Hill. That work begins in earnest now as the service embarks on a recruiting drive to shape the future. Insp. Rick Murphy says the difference between his generation and the Xers is part of the natural progression of society. Boomers grew up in an era where the social mores were different and people generally did what they were told. He said officers of his generation rarely questioned what their superiors told them to do. Today's officers ask for more explanation and justification because they reflect the evolving society. As well, while the boomers walked the beat and gained experience with time, police

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officers now come with college and university degrees and go "right out of orientation and right in the car." At the same time, policing has become more complex and demanding. Insp. Murphy has a lot of sympathy for the officers. "The social situation was a lot simpler 30 years ago. In the old days, we said we're not social workers. Today we are." Nevertheless, Insp. Murphy believes change can be managed with more supervision of new officers and improved coaching. And senior officers have to learn to adapt. "It is a new culture," he said. "We made policing our life career. Now it is only part of their career. They can go elsewhere." Staff Sgt. Joan McKenna, a 43-year-old Xer, says the character of her generation does reflect the society they grew up in. As a parent, she teaches her children to be more questioning. She says police officers are now much older when they are hired and come with a lot of "life experience" and skills. She became a police officer at 24, but today the average age of a recruit is about 28. Staff Sgt. McKenna said there is no question that with more boomers contemplating retirement, a lot of corporate knowledge and experience will be lost. Her particular concern, and part of the challenge facing the service, is that there are fewer female officers in senior ranks. And a big part of the problem is that many women don't want the responsibility. "It is always a challenge to get women in promotion. They just don't want it so you don't have that representation in leadership roles to be able to mentor other officers," she said. The survey also suggests a potential personnel minefield with the finding that one-fifth of police officers are married or in common-law relationship with one another, said Ms. Frazer. If a police officer takes a year off on maternity leave and the partner takes a four-month parental leave as allowed by the collective agreement, that adds up to the loss of 1.4 years in productivity. "If that becomes a trend in our organization, we will have to find a way to manage it," Ms. Frazer said. Another concern for the future is the recruitment of more minorities, Deputy Chief Hill said. Deputy Chief Hill said recruiting more police officers with diverse backgrounds is not just a matter of reflecting the changing face of the city. It is actually critical to fighting crime. He said there have been several instances, including the recent shooting in Chinatown of two students, where a better "employee base" or links to the community, would have made a difference. Among visible minorities, the problem is particularly acute in the Chinese and Arab communities. And the challenge for the senior managers in the police department is to make the service look as appealing to other minorities as it does to Abe Kaazan. Const. Kaazan, 30, an Ottawa-born Canadian of Lebanese origin, joined the Ottawa police a year ago and loves it. He said he always wanted to become a police officer, and after high school, took a course in policing at Algonquin College. Despite his parents' misgivings about the potential danger involved in the job, they backed his choice and he has never regretted it.

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"I work with other young men and women and I really enjoy my job. I haven't faced any challenges that have obscured my ability to do the job and I would encourage my Lebanese and other friends to join," he said. "It is a great job to get into. They really take care of you." The Ottawa Citizen 2006

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REFERENCES BY DATE SEQUENCE: March 10th 2003 Best Practices: Addressing Diversity in Police Outreach and Recruitment Programs For Ottawa Police Service, prepared by Ishtar and Christopher Luesby for the Ottawa Police. March 27th 2003 Diversity in Policing a Community Forum, Nancy Wolsford, Acting Director, Community Development, Ottawa Police. January 19th, 2004 Managing Change and Increasing Diversity-Ottawa Police Services A Joint Research Project Eric Sprott School of Business, team led by Dr. Linda Duxbury, Carleton University. March 4th, 2004 - Ottawa Police Service, Outreach Recruitment Project, Internal Focus Group Final Report, Natalya Kuziak, Corporate Planning. Ottawa Police. March 17th 2004 COMPAC Prioritizing Community Recommendations for the Outreach Recruitment Project, By Elizabeth Kwan for the Ottawa Police.

February, 2005 Community Review of the Constable Selection System, Findings and Recommendations and Detailed Response, Facilitated by Staff Sergeant Paul Gallant and Sergeant Cori Slaughter

January 2006 Member Review of the Constable Selection System, the Civilian and Student Hiring Processes and the Volunteer Recruiting Process, Findings and Recommendations, Facilitated by Staff Sergeant Paul Gallant and Sergeant Cori Slaughter April 11th, 2007 PowerPoint Ottawa Police Service Candidate Review Process, Discussions with Superintendents April 30th, 2007 PowerPoint Change to Candidate Review Process Sworn Recruit Officers Executive Team Meeting,

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