Niagara police hash out pot policy
Officers must report for duty in a condition that allows to them to perform any assignment
Fit for duty. That’s the standard Niagara Regional Police officers will have to meet when reporting to work should one of them consume marijuana in their off-duty hours.
“The chief and I are very comfortable with our position,” said the deputy chief of support services, Bill Fordy.
“I’m confident and hopeful our members will make good choices. We spent a lot of time discussing this with the chief (Bryan MacCulloch) and the association.”
It’s an issue police services across the county have been working on since they learned Ottawa was moving forward with its pledge to legalize pot.
“We started to work through all the different intangibles and when they come into play,” Fordy said. “We wanted to be accountable to the public and fully respectful of our membership.”
Calgary has a complete ban. Officers are not allowed to consume marijuana, even on their days off. Toronto has what amounts to a total ban. Toronto prohibits its employees from using recreational cannabis within 28 days of reporting for duty, a length equal to or exceeding a stay in rehab.
London and Ottawa are two police services adopting the “fit for duty” standard — as are Vancouver and Hamilton.
The Niagara Region Police Association, which represents the rank and file officers, supports the policy. It’s the mandate Niagara officers have been working under for years. The legalization of cannabis shouldn’t change anything, said Cliff Priest, president of the NRPA.
“We regard this as a very sensible and even-handed approach by the chief and the leadership,” Priest said. “Our members are adults and professionals. If there is anyone that knows the effects of cannabis, it is a police officer. We have seen what it does to people.
“We don’t think there will be a landslide of people showing up unfit for duty. If someone does show up unfit for duty, I’m confident another member, or a su-
pervisor, will deal with it.
“I don’t know anyone who would want to work with someone who is unfit for duty, full stop. It’s not just cannabis. We don’t want someone who is fatigued and going to fall asleep at the wheel of a cruiser. We don’t want someone whose judgment is impaired by anything.”
Fordy said the changing cannabis laws have created an interesting dynamic for police leadership. He arrived in Niagara from British Columbia in 2017 with 28 years of RCMP experience, having served as an assistant commissioner overseeing all operational and administrative matters in the Lower Mainland district.
“I’ve been doing policing for more than 40 years, and cannabis has always been a prohibitive substance,” he said. “Management has to wrap its mind around the fact that their employees can now consume it legally. That’s a big change.
“I acknowledge that I’ve had to work through a bias. A few years ago, I was talking to the media that I viewed cannabis as a gateway to other drugs that were a problem in our community.
“For myself, and the other leaders, there has been a journey and an acknowledgement that our thinking needed to evolve. By last week, I was completely comfortable with where we are.”