Police morale not low, board chair says
The chair of the police services board says a veteran officer who spoke out against what the officer called a “corrupt” Ottawa police system should not have broken ranks in calling out the chief’s leadership and direction of the police force.
Coun. Eli El-Chantiry said his first reaction to the email sent by Const. Paul Heffler to the entire force was one of disappointment.
“There is a process to express your views,” El-Chantiry said.
El-Chantiry said in an organization of the Ottawa Police Service’s size there will be issues but that they “should be dealt with in the proper way.”
“What stopped this officer, whatever his name is, to go to his sergeant or staff sergeant or his inspector or his superintendent or his deputy or his chief versus going through that way?” he asked.
“My advice to any police officer: (if ) you have concerns, (if ) you have issues, your best venue is to talk to your supervisor.”
Heffler’s email was sent to the whole force Monday evening in response to an “open letter” issued by Chief Charles Bordeleau appealing to the public and larger community to help stop gun violence in the city.
Heffler’s email charged that morale was low, the will to work patrol had all but vanished and the force had forgotten its front line, in what he called an “inbred system of selfpromotion” where officers act out of self-interest rather than out of concern for policing the streets.
El-Chantiry admitted he doesn’t “have regular encounters with the officers.
“Yes, I’m the police board chair, we are the oversight body, but do I deal with the officers every day? The answer is no.”
Even so, El-Chantiry said, low morale was not a systemic issue.
“Do I think there is a systemic problem here? The answer is no. I believe we have 2,000 people working for us at the service — 600 civilian, 1,400 uniform. I think 99.9 per cent of them do a great job and they get up every morning.
“I know the odd time we hear something like this or hear an officer did something, like we heard two suspended because of the false ticketing issue,” El-Chantiry said.
A total of 11 officers are currently under investigation for allegedly falsifying traffic warnings to boost internal statistics.
“We hear it and it’s disheartening to hear about it because the majority of the people are doing a great job, and it seems that message is missing.”
El-Chantiry pointed to a recent Statistics Canada survey that said no city in the country has more confidence in its police service than does Ottawa.
Yet last summer, officers on the force, in their own internal survey, said they lacked confidence in their own leadership.
When asked if, as police board chair, there is value for him to see unfiltered comments from frontline officers rather than from police brass, El-Chantiry said the service is a paramilitary service with structure that must be followed.
“(Bordeleau) is chief operating officer, so he’s the chief constable, and he’s in charge of the operations. As a board, we’re the oversight, we’re the governing body. We support our chief with the budget, with advice.”
El-Chantiry said that since the matter is of public interest, Bordeleau will have to address the matter as a personnel issue with the board.
Bordeleau told 580 CFRA’s Evan Solomon on Wednesday that “As chief, I do expect to get feedback, both positive and negative.
“There’s a purpose for the mass distribution list, and in my mind that was inappropriate. And we’re dealing with that issue,” he said.
After making those comments, Bordeleau told the Citizen that the force has “policies governing the use of our email system.”
Bordeleau would not say whether a disciplinary complaint has been launched against Heffler, because it was a personnel matter.
“It is inappropriate for me to comment publicly on any action taken at this point,” he said.
The police board’s next public meeting is Monday evening.