Police’s planned historic hiring year is in doubt

What was supposed to be a year of record-breaking hiring for the Ottawa police is now in limbo as a result of the pandemic.

In January, police announced an ambitious hiring plan to grow the force by 100 new officers by year’s end and to have all those officers on the road ready to patrol in 2021. They would help lift morale and ease the workloads of officers stretched too thin after years of hiring freezes and then piecemeal growth of the service, police said.

Chief Peter Sloly said at the time that the fast-tracked hiring of officers was necessary because public safety demanded it. So, too, did a policing strategy that reinvested resources into a neighbourhood-policing model and prioritized suppression of gun and gang violence and violence against women.

That’s been complicated by COVID -19, and deferring that historic plan is one of the options to start plugging holes of a police budget that is expected to be in the red at least $6 million if the pandemic and the response to curb its spread lasts until December. No final decisions have been made by the service.

Ottawa police said Tuesday that to deliver the hiring plan, and to replace retiring and resigning officers, the force needed to hire about 150 new officers this year.

But the Ontario Police College, which trains all police officers in the province, has shuttered its doors amid the pandemic.

Ottawa police had planned to hire three classes this year of 48 recruits each — the first of which was hired in February. None of those officers have gone through police college yet, but are on the payroll.

Ottawa police’s in-house training centre — the professional development centre — is working with the provincial police college and coming up with some “home-schooling” options for those recruits, which would see them trained and certified, said police chief administrative officer Jeff Letourneau.

Sloly said Tuesday that there were ongoing “live” discussions to see Ottawa police become a sort of eastern-region training centre in the province during the pandemic. That could bring in some revenue for the service. None of those discussions have been finalized, either.

Before the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic, Ottawa police estimated in a February presentation to the police board that these new recruits would have completed all training requirements in 12 months from their hire dates. That would have included 14 weeks at the inhouse training centre and 13 weeks at the Ontario Police College. They would have been sworn in and begun their probationary period at that time followed by “in-car training with coach officer.” Multiple assessments would occur over that probationary period but after 500 hours with their coach officer, those officers would be ready to patrol independently.

If police can manage to train the recruits, getting them on the road also presents challenges. Physical-distancing requirements mean police can’t, in good faith, have two officers in a cruiser, a tried-andtrue method for training new recruits, who benefit from constant guidance and conversation.

To date, the only positive COVID-19 cases in the Ottawa Police Service occurred in a coach officer and a new recruit.

After that, all coaches and recruits in Ottawa were told to patrol in separate cars. A civilian employee has also tested positive, the force told employees Wednesday. That person has been at home since March 25.

The hiring plan will cost nearly $15 million over four years — all of which would come from the service’s reserve funds. In the meantime, Ottawa police outreach and recruitment efforts have continued despite the uncertain status of the plan.