Meet police’s new community liaison
Jasbir Dhillon says she wants to foster mutual respect and collaboration
As the new community relations co-ordinator for Hamilton police, Jasbir Dhillon says her top priority is to create more dialogue between diverse community groups and the police service.
“My main goal is to create an environment of mutual respect, of collaboration and of dialogue,” she said.
It’s a challenge that is at the forefront here in the aftermath of violence that broke out at Hamilton Pride in June and the fallout since.
Hamilton police were criticized for what some felt was a delayed response and arrests of Pride defenders.
Dhillon started the job in July and is acutely aware of the ongoing concerns around hate in Hamilton.
Her job is to communicate with various community groups, including the LGBTQ+, racialized and immigrant communities, about concerns and interactions with police.
“This is an opportunity for the police services and the communities to come together and have honest good faith conversations about what to make better.”
The community relations coordinator position is one that sat vacant since the end of January 2018, with the departure of Sandra Wilson, who was a strong advocate in that role for many years.
Hamilton police spokesperson Jackie Penman noted the job was posted a few times as the service sought “the right person” to fill the role.
The job is unique in that while her office is in Hamilton police headquarters, she does most of her work outside while connecting with community groups.
“I work for the Hamilton Police Services, but I really work for the community of Hamilton,” she said, “to be responsive to what their concerns are.”
In her first weeks on the job, Dhillon has been doing a lot of “internal learning” by going on ride-alongs with police, and meeting with the hate crime and community mobilization units.
She’s also had some preliminary meetings in the community and is starting to go to events.
She is part of the police community mobilization unit, which had picked up the work in the absence of a community relations co-ordinator.
Dhillon will work with the police in the unit when planning events or community responses.
But her job is also to listen and bring back concerns or information to the police service and for that, Dhillon said she has a “direct line to the chief’s office.”
Dhillon’s family immigrated from India in 1987 and settled in Hamilton. She grew up in Stoney Creek.
Dhillon said her path to community work was unexpected. She initially was going to study engineering but decided shortly before starting at the University of Waterloo to switch to political science and arts and business.
She wanted to work in international community development, but ended up working in economic development in British Columbia.
In 2009, former Ontario ombudsman Andre Marin released a report that called on the Special Investigations Unit (Ontario’s police watchdog) to dispel its image of being a “toothless tiger.”
In direct response to that report, the SIU created the outreach co-ordinator position — Dhillon was the first person hired. The work, starting in 2009, saw her travel across the province engaging with communities.
Often she found herself having conversations about the role of police and use of force.
Now she believes that dialogue and broad understanding about how many feel about police is transferable for her new job.
“Hamilton is a community that has always been close to my heart,” she said, adding her parents still live in the same Stoney Creek home where she grew up.
Since starting at Hamilton Police Services, she’s run into people she knew from childhood and says she is excited to work here because it’s a community that is “100 per cent engaged.”
“It’s a time of change and I’m excited for that change and that connection to the community and to be able to engage in dialogue.”