Bullying among police ‘going on across our country’: researcher
A researcher studying police culture across the country says she has heard very similar stories to the one shared by a Calgary police officer during a public resignation this week.
Lesley Bikos, a PhD candidate in sociology at Western University, said she wasn’t surprised to hear of Const. Jen Ward’s resignation at a Calgary Police Commission meeting Tuesday. The 14-year veteran of the service cited ongoing bullying and harassment within the workplace when she read her resignation letter to commission members, including Calgary’s police chief.
“This is going on all across our country,” said Bikos.
Bikos, a former police officer, is interviewing male and female officers as part of a nation-wide study, and has talked to more than 60 members from about 20 police services.
She said during those interviews, she has heard stories of sexual harassment, workplace harassment, bullying and of “silence and loyalty” within police culture.
“For many, they express that there’s no point in coming forward,” Bikos said.
“Police officers who do try to come forward — two things happen: either they’re socially and professionally ostracized completely until they quit, or until they are silenced, or the other option is that they just never come forward and complain because they see things like what just happened to this policewoman, and so they feel like what’s the point, nothing’s go- ing to change.”
Some officers also don’t want to get involved with the stigma associated with someone “who rats on the culture,” she added. The perception in the culture, she said, is that if they come forward with complaints, or report fellow officers, they will be ostracized.
“It’s the informal policies that become the ruler of the police department, and one of those informal policies is if you rat on your brothers and sisters, you’re out, and that’s what this policewoman experienced, in my opinion,” said Bikos.
The researcher said the main point she hears from most people she interviews is that officers with concerns want to be taken seriously.
“Their biggest thing was that they wanted validation,” she said.
“They wanted to be taken seri- ously and they wanted the issue to stop and they wanted the person who had done whatever they had done to be held accountable, and nine times out of 10 that was not happening.”
Calgary police Chief Roger Chaffin said following Ward’s resignation that the CPS is working to change the culture within the service.
“Things about gender equity particularly are what we’re striving hard to understand,” Chaffin said.
Calgary Police Commission chair Brian Thiessen told reporters following the meeting that Ward’s decision to resign was “heartbreaking.”
“I think she’s already moved the needle incredibly far ahead,” he said. “It is a No. 1 priority of the commission, and therefore the service, because of her actions and those like her.”