Time to end culture of oppression in police services
On June 1, a class-action lawsuit was launched against the Waterloo Regional Police Services (WRPS) Board and the police association for sexual harassment, abuse and discrimination. The allegations include a supervisory officer sending texts to a woman under his command saying he was “naked and drunk” and asking her for naked pictures. In another instance, a training officer drove a female officer to a secluded location and demanded oral sex from her.
As someone who served with the WRPS for 30 years, held the rank of constable, sergeant, staff sergeant, inspector and superintendent in human resources, I am astounded that it has taken this long for these issues to come to light. I have added my voice to the class action lawsuit because I have experienced the affect of these alleged transgressions. My wife, Sharon Zehr, is also one of the plaintiffs.
While it is tempting to see the alleged scenarios as the work of just a few bad apples, I know that is not the case.
The truth is, the internal culture of policing is closely guarded and secretive. The culture encourages oppression and misogyny, and has become a breeding ground for abuse.
It is an exclusive society that is regimented by a militaristic rank structure built to contain and conceal the inner workings of the service. Recruits are required to take an oath of secrecy. While this is meant to prevent the sharing of intelligence with citizens, it is leveraged as a method of containment and fear mongering amongst officers to prevent them from speaking out.
Rank is the ultimate marker of prestige and men are the ones entitled to it. Civilians are the lowest in the social pecking order because they do not hold rank power. Uniformed women are a close second at the bottom of this hierarchy. To maintain the patriarchal culture of policing, civilian and uniformed women are constantly subjected to institutionalized gender-based discrimination, blatant barriers and exclusion.
Men with rank power are seldom, if ever, disciplined for any kind of inappropriate or even criminal behaviour. Instead, they are routinely protected and promoted. If a woman tries to stick up for herself, she is typically threatened with unwarranted documentation of poor work performance or with charges under the Police Services Act, such as discreditable conduct or insubordination.
To protect their career and the organization, many women endured the abuse and felt forced to engage in abuse themselves to avoid immediate and severe consequences. This is known as the “queen bee” syndrome. I know many of these women struggle with feelings of guilt to this day.
Some women felt used as token representatives of their gender. Tokenism only changes the optics, not the reality. Still others, kept in more subordinate positions, were treated and looked upon like mascots.
Without addressing this toxic culture we will never bring an end to the sexual abuse and discrimination routinely experienced by female police officers across the province and the country.
The WRPS is not the first police service to be placed under the public microscope for its private culture. Both the RCMP and Ottawa Police Service have received similar attention for gender related issues.
A class-action lawsuit brought against the RCMP recently settled out of court. Many would agree that there has been no discernable change in the culture of the RCMP since then.
The Ottawa Police Service initiated a gender audit under the watchful eye of the Ontario Human Rights Commission. The results of this audit were published12 years after the incident that led to its creation. It remains to be seen what real change, if any, this will have.
As of June 1, only five women have reached the senior officer level in the 43 years of the WRPS. None have headed the police association. How does Chief Bryan Larkin, who was recently made president of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, expect to resolve the issues when he won’t even admit there is a problem?
We cannot expect Ontario’s police to be our protectors when many are themselves victims or perpetrators. Real change will only be achieved when there are consequences for the perpetrators of gender-based discrimination and harassment. Effective independent oversight is urgently needed. We cannot afford to wait any longer to end the oppression at the heart of our justice system.