AILING COPS THIN RANKS
11% of force on modified duty
An Ottawa Police Services Board member is flagging the 160 officers who were recently on special schedules for medical reasons, wondering what impact it has on the force.
Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney said he’s worried that having 11 per cent of all uniformed officers on some kind of accommodation schedule might affect policing.
“I have had a lot of officers mention this to me because it really affects scheduling,” Tierney said.
He submitted an inquiry to management during a police board meeting this week, asking police leaders if they consider the accommodation number high.
As of Tierney’s last check on May 9, 99 officers were on temporary medical accommodations and 61 were on permanent accommodations.
Matt Skof, president of the Ottawa Police Association, said nitpicking about accommodations for “vulnerable” members of the force diverts attention from the real problem of staff shortages.
“Given that we’re in an incredible staffing need right now, it’s a section that’s easy to blame because the service just turns its finger and says we’re short-staffed because of accommodation, which couldn’t be further from the truth,” Skof said. “Accommodations are very normal in every large organization. It is the responsibility of the organization to plan for that. This is not a new issue. It has been around for decades.”
The force has a legal duty to accommodate members, Skof noted.
“Our accommodation numbers are right on par with every other organization,” he said.
Police brass cited the number of officers on permanent medical accommodation as a staffing pressure during the 2016 budget process.
Acting Supt. Steve Bell said the number of accommodations has gone up, but the police force has to complete an analysis to understand by how much.
“We’re not the only police organization in Canada that has seen rises in accommodation levels,” Bell said.
Bell said as a result of Tierney’s inquiry, staff will review all of its accommodations to understand the average time for temporary accommodations and how much it’s costing the force.
Accommodations shouldn’t be costing the force because staff are still doing necessary work for the organization, Bell said.
“We don’t create jobs to make accommodations work,” Bell said, but he noted an analysis will show how specific units might be affected.
Getting the full picture is difficult because sometimes staff have minor injuries and the workload will be sorted out within a unit, rather than having the matter rise to human resources.
Michelle Rathwell, the Ottawa police human resources director, said accommodations is a hot topic in the human resource branches of other police agencies in Ontario, especially when it comes to permanent accommodations.
“We’re sort of running out of room of where to be able to put them and accommodate people permanently,” Rathwell said.
While Tierney wondered if officers on accommodation can pick up paid-duty assignments on hours they can’t work, both Bell and Skof said officers can only sign up for those shifts for the hours that align with their accommodation program. For example, if an officer can’t work at night for medical reasons, he or she can’t pick up an evening paid-duty assignment.
Tierney said he started asking about the force’s accommodation statistics about two months ago after cops approached him complaining about fellow officers’ modified schedules. He said he’ll be seeking information about other cities’ medical accommodation numbers through his work with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
Our accommodation numbers are right on par with every other organization.
“I’m very sure the majority are merited,” Tierney said. “But it’s worth looking at other municipal policing services to see how they operate.”
There isn’t a firm timeline on when Ottawa police will provide an answer to the police board on accommodations since staff want to do a thorough analysis. The bestcase scenario is July, Rathwell said.