Diversity in Policing Project Report
For the Period April 1, 2004, to March 31, 2005

In 2002, Diversity Thunder Bay conducted a semi-formal survey of citizens in Thunder Bay.  The driving concern was racism. There were four related findings.  Respondents reported that discrimination or bias was experienced in four settings: schools, employment, the retail sector, and encounters with police.  It was Thunder Bay Police who first stepped up to the challenge, promising to listen to the communities and to respond with appropriate Institutional Change.

TBMA developed the proposal to partner with others in order to work with Thunder Bay Police to meet their diversity needs. To govern and manage the project, a Project Management Team (PMT) was formed.  Members included the most senior people from Diversity Thunder Bay, Thunder Bay Multicultural Association (TBMA, where the project is housed), Thunder Bay Police, and the Indian Friendship Centre (TBIFC).  Department of Canadian Heritage funded the initiative.

At eighteen months into the 27-month life of the project, several objectives have been achieved and momentum is strong for the rest.  The following summarizes the projects key events and related best practices.

1. The Project Management Team (PMT) is small and includes only the most critical stakeholders. There are no representatives simply for  political or demographic reasons.
2. Diversity Thunder Bay is the projects sponsor, and brings a network of highly credible anti-racism activists for both advice and two-way communication.
3. The PMT spent considerable time developing terms of reference and agreements on how to resolve conflict.  The Heritage Canada representative sat ex officio on the PMT and was helpful in that start-up phase and throughout the project.  Start-up training for the PMT on racism was open at  no cost to key community persons with an interest in the issue and in the project another good communication and networking activity.
4. The Coordinator conducted about fifty interviews over the summer to validate the plans, communicate to the community and recruit allies for later phases.  Networks are good; they bring access to information.  Relationships are better; they bring allies and commitment. We sought and achieved both.
5. We developed a Validation Group of fifteen persons, mostly Aboriginal but reflecting all races, whose advice we promised to follow and we kept that promise throughout.  They were representative, brought expertise to the discussion, and were well-connected to relevant communities.  Members included an association representative, a Metis senator, a shaman, a training and employment specialist, a political science professor, a college teacher in Aboriginal Justice, two persons working directly in Aboriginal justice, students, activists, two persons who worked for Aboriginal organizations one in Health and the other in Economic adjustment - and others working for well-connected stake-holders. But while all were chosen for both expertise and representativeness, none was a delegate of any organization; all were merely citizens who could help and wanted to.
6. By chance we had two researchers, sequentially, and their (very superior but different) skills were both right for the evolving phases.  Our first researcher gathered concepts, studies, data and case studies to ground our work.  The second was well-known and trusted in all target communities and shared facilitation tasks when those were paramount. 
7. A necessary element in the institutional analysis was an Employment Systems Review (ESR) to seek any evidence of policies and practices that were unintentionally but systemically racist.  Methodology included a good combination of external specialists, project staff and police staff, leading to a lot of output for the money and to having four persons in Thunder Bay with sufficient expertise and experience to take the next steps internally.
8. We conducted twenty-three Focus Groups with persons most likely to have experienced negative encounters with police: youth; persons with alcohol and drug problems; persons with mental health histories; students in secondary, college and university programs; immigrants; homeless; and some in open custody. Their stories were powerful and problematic.
9. The core finding was a perception of racial profiling among Aboriginal and Black residents.
10. Thunder Bay Police have committed to several responses; the following four are central:
    -Respond to the ESR findings, primarily in the area of Outreach recruitment.
    -Respond to the perception of profiling through internal efforts, policies and training.
    -Seek community partnership to re-establish a Street Patrol to do front-line work with youth and intoxicated persons, reducing police contact while still improving safety for residents and clients.
    -Establish a novel kind of detox facility based on the Australian Sobering-Up Centres, reducing the need to take intoxicated and at-risk persons to jail. One Aboriginal organization is taking the lead in developing this.
11. Project staff and PMT members have taken both communication and influence to other projects and arenas: 
    -a local multi-agency Mental Health and Criminal Justice Committee;
    -the local element in the five-city federal Action for Neighbourhood Change project;
    -a sister-project, the Heritage Canada-funded Kenora Justice Initiative sponsored by Grand Council Treaty #3;
    -the regional Ontario Hospital Association; and
    -we have also successfully increased the attention to Aboriginal persons in local initiatives re harm reduction, cardiac health and regional hospital services in general.
12. Project activities and related Police actions have been formally disseminated at all levels: locally via radio and newspapers, Ontario-wide via the Ontario Association of Police Services Boards, and nationally on CBC Radio News.  

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