Police hiring consultants in effort to boost number of female and minority officers

WATERLOO REGION — Waterloo Regional Police is hiring two consultants to boost the number of female officers and minorities in its ranks.

Police Chief Bryan Larkin said the service must represent the community it serves and he has a plan that he hopes will change what policing looks like in Waterloo Region.

“We need to change to reflect the community we serve,” he said.

By next month, Larkin hopes to have hired two equity consultants, with one consultant focusing on gender issues.

More information will be presented at a police services board meeting in March, he said.

But the project will focus on an internal equity audit, he said.

“We need to do an internal census.”

Larkin wants to examine the barriers to policing for women and diverse communities.

“We want significant goals and objectives around recruitment, promotion and diversity,” he said.

“How do we attract people into policing? How do we build cultural sensitivity?”

Currently, mostly white men make up the pool of officers, with women accounting for 23 per cent.

On the civilian side, 98 per cent of workers are women.

Larkin said he hopes to create a community inclusion advisory council, and a manager of organizational development and culture will be hired.

The council will be made up of community leaders to give police “strategic direction and guidance.”

“In the next three years we are going to have to hire a significant number of police officers just based on attrition,” he said.

The upcoming changes come on the heels of a class-action suit alleging sexual discrimination and harassment, but the initiatives were in the works before the suit was announced, Larkin said.

“We have to change as a profession,” he said. “You have to be deliberate and set strategies for change.”

Traditionally, policing has attracted white men. Today, less than three per cent of young people think of policing as a profession.

“How do we inspire hope in young black youths that this is a career and an opportunity for them?” Larkin said.