Developing Diversity in Police Services Project Report
For the period April 1, 2005 through March 31, 2006

Phase one of the Police Services project was completed in March, 2006, with a proposed second phase or component submitted to the Department of Canadian Heritage for continued funding.  TBMA had originally 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 Thunder Bay Police, Diversity Thunder Bay, Thunder Bay Multicultural Association (TBMA, where the project is housed), and the Indian Friendship Centre (TBIFC). Department of Canadian Heritage funded the initiative.

A Validation Group, highly representative of our communities, was formed and has been together since November of 2004. All members have also agreed to continue for the two-year life of the new project.  They met once with the Police Chief alone and a second time with him and five other representatives. They believe that progress has been made and that their work should continue.

In spin-off projects, the Metis Nation of Ontario (MNO) plan to implement Meno Wakiagun, the Place of Safety, and the Aboriginal Liaison Committee (of Thunder Bay Police) has plans to work toward re-establishing a Street Patrol.

Chief of Police Robert Herman has given exemplary leadership. Police plan to respond over the next two years to all findings of the Diversity in Policing Project. As the project has progressed, Chief Herman has included more and more police staff, civilians and association members in learning, planning and governance roles.

We could have spent full time for the life of the project researching useful and interesting cases, theories and models of change. We gathered sufficient information to provide us with conceptual frameworks and reassurance. We shared our findings formally and informally, in total and a piece at a time as needed. We have become recognized as a very useful part of many networks and intentionally participate and communicate widely to achieve that.

An Employment Systems Review was completed by an exceptionally competent consultant with the results being well received by Thunder Bay Police who plan to use the information for future development.

We held a Mini-Conference on March 16 and 17, 2006, with four expert presenters with the following relevant backgrounds:

• Inspector Jim Potts, Aboriginal trainer, retired from a lengthy career with both the OPP and the RCMP.
• Dr. Valerie Pruegger, Calgary, formerly worked in policing and now teaches and consults in the area.  TB Police have asked her to perform their own analysis/audit, so she’ll help to invent a new framework for such analyses.
• Sergeant Steve Camp from Edmonton Police Service.  Steve participated in their “audit” and in  implementation.  He spent time in California learning about their experiences and responses.
• Barry Thomas, former E.D. of the Canadian Centre for Police-Race Relations. Barry is African-Canadian and has Toronto experience from the difficult days.

The theme of the conference was anti-profiling policies and generally more professional policing, often called bias-free policing.

The next two years will be spent taking the values and policies to the front line. Capacity to do this has indeed been developed; the next project will take it to the streets.