More officers needed to combat hate crimes, police board told
New plan aims to better reflect the diversity of the Niagara community
Niagara Regional Police could be doing more to support the diverse communities in the region, if they had the manpower to do so.
Following an overview of the Niagara Regional Police equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) unit’s work presented at Thursday’s police services board meeting, board member Laura Ip, a St. Catharines regional councillor, asked if police face any limitations in investigating issues such as hate crimes.
Insp. Paul Koscinski said “the limitations are many on the EDI unit.”
“There are only so many places that we can be at once, there are only so many things we can do at one time,” he said.
Koscinski said only two officers are working with the EDI unit on a full-time basis.
“There are only so many things we can do,” he said. “They reach out to other units of the service who may support them in response to addressing hate incidents, but certainly in terms of our maximum success rate and outreach, I’m sure we could be doing better with more people, and we could have an improved impact on the community as well.”
A report presented at a police services board meeting in early February said officers investigated 30 hate-related incidents last year and laid three criminal charges. In 2022, police investigated 41 incidents, leading to seven charges.
Board members also adopted the 2024-2025 Diversity Plan during the meeting. The plan was developed to foster a culture of equity, diversity, and inclusion within the police service, reflect the community they serve and to enhance collaboration with community partners to build and strengthen relationships with cultural groups.
Diversity plans are also a requirement of the provincial government’s Community Safety and Policing Act that comes into effect April 1.
A report about the plan presented during the meeting said it builds on the police service’s initial threeyear diversity, equity and inclusion strategic plan launched in 2020.
Responding to a question about how the police force ensures officers comply with equity, diversity and inclusion directives, Koscinski listed several initiatives including the training and recruitment of new officers.
But when the directives are not followed, he said the response depends on the circumstances.
“It depends on the degree of how and why it doesn’t happen, and if there are any overtones of something that should have been done when it wasn’t done, that is appropriately addressed through internal mechanisms, if it rises to the level that is more than just mere inattention to what we’re supposed to be doing,” Koscinski said.
However, he said the efforts to promote diversity among officers are well received by new recruits.
“They are very well engaged with our communities which leads to follow ups … They tend to want to reach out to other diverse communities to start building those relationships.”
He said it includes developing an understanding of cultural groups and how they can support them, while also working on how those community organizations can support policing.
“Inevitably, there are many times when we come across diverse individuals in the community that may be newcomers to Canada or that may not have had contact with the police in the past who will need that extra support,” Koscinski said. “By having those relationships, those officers realize how much of a help it is in their work and generally in our work … to assist them in having positive outcomes for those individuals and overall for the community.”