Sloly to be sworn in as Ottawa’s chief on Monday
Sloly to lead at time when force grapples with lack of morale and staffing shortage
Peter Sloly will be sworn in as Ottawa police chief Monday before dawn at a private ceremony that’s to be attended by the board members that chose him to head the force and the officers he’ll lead.
The 6:30 a.m. swearing in on parade for patrol officers marks the official beginning of his tenure, but comes two months after he was named chief.
In that time alone, the challenges that Sloly will face as top cop have increased.
POLICE BOARD CHANGES
Coun. Diane Deans, the police board chair, is on medical leave from her role as councillor and on the board after a startling diagnosis of ovarian cancer.
Coun. Keith Egli, who was also on the board, asked to be off the board for medical reasons and Mayor Jim Watson has taken his seat.
That means two of the seven people who made the decision to hire Sloly won’t be there for the start of his work. Watson, who had routinely opted not to speak about police governance or police issues and instead deferred to the police board during challenging times in former chief Charles Bordeleau’s tenure, won’t be able to do the same with Sloly.
Sloly’s first day on the job will also include his first board meeting.
HEALING SERVICE
Just one month ago, a detective shot and killed himself inside police headquarters, renewing concerns about officer mental health and the supports in place for officers who might be struggling on the job and in their personal lives.
Sloly, who was in Ottawa that weekend for the national police memorial on Parliament Hill, went to the Elgin Street headquarters to support officers on the night of the suicide. That work will have to continue.
COMMUNITY RELATIONS
All evidence in the manslaughter trial of Const. Daniel Montsion is before the judge, but it will be well into 2020 before any decision on the verdict is made. The longer the trial sits on ice, the more community tensions could boil. Sloly will need to address the angst of both the community and his officers awaiting the verdict.
Ottawa police have also yet to release two major piles of information that will affect the community.
Updated information on race data collected during traffic stops is in and police will need to address what the new data shows. In 2016, police released the data, mandated to be collected in 2013-15 after settlement of a human rights complaint by a young black man who alleged he had been racially profiled and it showed black and Middle Eastern-looking men were disproportionately pulled over by police.
The community is also awaiting the release of a diversity audit that police voluntarily undertook in the wake of a gender audit, also mandated by a human rights complaint settlement with a female police officer.
BUDGET
The force is set to reveal its draft budget Nov. 6, just days into Sloly’s tenure. While the bulk of the work to table that draft has been done without him, Sloly, who has been critical of bloated police budgets in the past and touted the values of leveraging technology to do more with what’s essentially less, will have to defend the service’s request of taxpayer money. Will he have input?
STAFFING
Bordeleau left the chief’s office after a hiring plan added more officers to the force, but officers say those numbers still aren’t meeting the needs of the force. The service offers overtime to officers to make sure it can meet its minimum staffing requirements on the road. How will a budget-conscious chief deal with a staffing crisis?
MORALE, COHESION, TRUST WITHIN THE ORGANIZATION
Rank-and-file officers continue to grapple with morale and trust of the senior ranks.
The relationship with the Ottawa Police Association was broken under Bordeleau. Sloly has had preliminary, positive talks with the association and its president Matt Skof. Skof remains hopeful there will be a lasting shift in how the Ottawa police executive leads the organization.
Being sworn in as chief with the rank-and-file beginning their workday does send a message to front-line officers about Sloly’s values, but as an external hire, he remains a mystery to much of the force.
THE EXECUTIVE
Sloly takes the helm of the force from Deputy Chief Steve Bell, who served as interim chief from the day Bordeleau retired nearly six months ago and steered the ship through major events.
Sloly will need to foster strong relationships with not only Bell, but also Deputy Chief Uday Jaswal, who remains embroiled in a sexual harassment and human rights complaint and police watchdog investigation, spurred on by allegations from a civilian police employee.
While the police board opted not to suspend Jaswal, Sloly will have to manage the force in the wake of the allegations and the ongoing investigation, which will likely last for months.