Student awarded Flanagan scholarship
$1,500 prize is given to a racialized woman studying police foundations
Sitting in her living room, her blue hair in a bun, Latoya Chevannes strikes a different figure than most cops on the beat, but she believes it to be a good thing — different people mean different perspectives.
Chevannes, 20, just finished her police foundations program at Algonquin College and will receive the Thomas G. Flanagan Scholarship on Tuesday night at the Community Police Awards Ceremony. The $1,500 scholarship is awarded to a police foundations student who is a racialized woman who has expressed interest in joining the Ottawa Police Service. She’ll use the money to go back to school to study criminology at Carleton University, where she intends to apply.
Her part-time job at fast-food restaurant A&W doesn’t get her very far since she spends a big chunk of her time volunteering — at places such as the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa, Christie Lake Kids, and St. Vincent Hospital.
Chevannes grew up in a singleparent home. Her father lives in Ottawa, but he’s not an influence.
“It sucks that my dad is not there, but still I’m not going to let that keep me down from getting my dream job or getting where I want to be,” she said.
It’s been a challenge from the beginning of her life.
“I was alone when I had her, and ever since it was just me and her,” said her mother, Simone Chevannes. “I had to teach her to ride a bike, to skate …”
“All the things you would expect from a dad,” Latoya said. Things her mother didn’t even know how to do herself.
“I taught her to be her own person and follow her dreams,” Simone said. At the top of that list is becoming a police officer.
Insp. Pat Flanagan will be on hand for the award presentation. A police officer for more than three decades, he is working in the east division district directorate.
Flanagan’s path to policing was quite different from the one Chevannes is on.
“A lot of influence, right from the beginning,” he said.
Flanagan’s is the most storied policing family in the city’s history. The scholarship, named after his father, former chief Thomas Flanagan, speaks to that history and what has been widely regarded as his dad’s foresight into what those who vow to serve and protect would eventually have to be to their communities.
Pat’s brothers Mike and Steve became cops, too. Mike is a superintendent and Steve a retired sergeant. Brother Curt is a Crown attorney in Brockville and nephew Avery, Thomas Flanagan’s grandson, is a patrol officer.
Pat’s mother Alma encouraged them all and was the backbone of a family committed to the community. Both Thomas and Alma died in 2002, just three months apart.
“I watched my father throughout the years, and some of the stories he brought home, we listened around the table with great interest.”
He took with him his father’s simple philosophy on the job: “Police work is really all about helping people.”
His dad was a compassionate cop — even the suspects he collared thought so.
A convicted armed robber would bring his Christmas greeting in person to the Flanagan home in Overbrook for years.
“He knew police work was not just about chasing and catching bad guys and putting them in jail,” Flanagan said. “But there’s always ordinary problems with ordinary people.”
His father built bridges with communities and the scholarship is a testament to that vision and legacy, Flanagan said. He developed race-relations training for officers, insisting that they reach out to the gay and lesbian communities.
The application essays for the scholarship usually touch on how important it is for Ottawa police to have genuine conversations with people who have been marginalized.
“That’s who my father was,” Flanagan said.
Of the 22 women who have received the scholarship, Chevannes included, only two have ever gone on to work for Ottawa police. One went on to work for another force.
“The face of our community is changing drastically,” said Const. Yolande Jaques of the diversity and race relations section, which awards the scholarship.
By 2031, 36 per cent of Ottawa’s population will be non-white. Right now, it’s about 19 per cent.
“Let’s face it. It’s been a maledominated profession for quite a while,” Jaques said.
Chevannes was chosen because she was driven, and continued to apply despite not getting the award when she first applied last year.
Sometimes even drive is not enough, especially in a competitive market where hiring has been frozen for years. The force continues its efforts to recruit women — hosting women-only information sessions and fitness-prep. It’s unclear where the disconnect is between interest and the number of women being hired. Are women not meeting the standards required to be hired? Or are they moving on to other job possibilities in greater numbers than their male counterparts?
Flanagan is clear: The scholarship is a great tool, but it’s not the only one. Work still needs to be done.
The force also continues to combat traditional thinking ingrained in both policing culture and the cultures of racialized women that policing isn’t a job for women of colour.
It’s a reality not lost on Chevannes.
“I know it’s hard for people of my ethnicity and other ethnicities to get into policing, but in the end, I know what I want.”
I know it’s hard for people of my ethnicity and other ethnicities to get into policing, but in the end, I know what I want.