Phase 1 Report

The phase 1 report is available in Adobe PDF format. 
Click here to download it.

Origin and Beginnings

We tend to be impatient with change, to think that institutions should modify themselves to reflect our goals and desires on demand.  We also tend to discover over time that such approaches almost never work.  When an institution and those it serves share little trust and much frustration, little problem solving will happen.  In the Diversity in Policing Project in Thunder Bay we settled for rebuilding trust and developing ways to communicate, negotiate and form partnerships.  We will emerge, in time, having solved many more, and deeper, problems that would have been possible had we begun naively.

The need was documented in 2002.  Diversity Thunder Bay, an anti-racism alliance of individuals and organizations, commissioned a survey about systemic racism toward Aboriginal residents.  They discovered that Aboriginals here felt discriminated against by:

• schools
• employers
• stores and
• police

Some denied the results or attacked the methodology.  Police Chief Bob Herman responded.  To paraphrase his stand: in a country founded on racism and in which almost all institutions exhibit systemic racism, it would make little sense for him to pretend that his organization was uniquely without flaws.  Then he joined in the project (1) to identify any sources of systemic racism in Policing and (2) to remove those causes.

The project began January 1 of 2004 with funding from Canadian Heritage.  The Project Management Team (PMT) included members from:

• Thunder Bay Indian Friendship Centre
• Diversity Thunder Bay
• Thunder Bay Multicultural Association
• Thunder Bay Police

The PMT took time to build trust, processes and infrastructure, and they have worked harmoniously since.  In mid-2004 a Project Coordinator was hired.  He began by conducting about fifty interviews to verify the perceived problem and to meet key people from all communities, interviewing many police personnel and taking two full-shift ride-along sessions with officers working the most difficult section of town. The sole focus on Aboriginals was expanded to include all racial minorities.

From those interviews and other networking and relationship-building, a Validation Group was formed.  This group of ten Aboriginal persons, three racial minorities and four non-Native whites were chosen for intelligence, diversity and credibility.  None represents any organization but all have connections to one or more stakeholders.  The Coordinator has a simple contract with them: if they disagree with him they win.  Thats why they are not just an advisory committee Validation is a powerful term, and we mean it.

Employment Systems Review
In the winter of 2005 we performed a complete Employment Systems Review (ESR).  Every rule and practice regarding recruitment and hiring was examined. Generally, the systems were more than adequate and there were some positive measures for including women and Aboriginal candidates.  What was missing was active outreach visibility in the communities, advertising in Wawatay and the Metis Voyageur and similar activities.  The other issue was a sense of being welcome: we were told that Police needed to spend more time in communities in helpful, out-of-uniform roles and that the perception of racial profiling was an issue.

Community Consultation
What about the behaviour of officers at work?  We conducted 23 focus groups with 155 persons. The  community consultation documented a perception of Racial Profiling among many Aboriginal and African-Canadian citizens.  A conference was held in March of 2006 to set the foundation for analyzing all police policy, practice and culture and to make responsive changes.  From that, policies requiring fair and sensitive policing free from racial profiling will be developed.

Spin-Off Projects
Early on the idea arose of an Australian-style Sobering-Up Centre.  The issues were safety and an alternative to jail for at-risk intoxicated persons, especially  in the Simpson-Ogden core.  Some of the community perception of profiling is based on constant conflict of intoxicated persons in this bar-laden strip.  The Metis Nation of Ontario has taken on the implementation task and good partnerships have already been built.  It will be called Meno Wakiagun, the Place of Safety.

Many also urged us to develop a new, enriched version of the mid-nineties Street Patrol.  This also would be developed and operated by Aboriginal Communities.  Street patrols reduce criminality, save lives in the winter, reduce victimization and reduce contact with police and so also reduce the perception of profiling in the community.  Partnerships for the needs analysis and development stage are ready.  These two initiatives will demonstrate both better service and reduction of apparent racial profiling.

Ongoing Communication, Dissemination   
There has been much demand for information and that will increase.  We have had help via a Partner Project, Action for Neighbourhood Change, in having the National Film Board record some events.  Weve presented the project to about a dozen audiences, mostly local plus one national conference in Toronto. Requests for presentations to Toronto Police and to the Ontario Police College will be met soon -  we need to start early in the next project to develop tools for such broader dissemination.

In the community here, the Validation Group is our main connection, but we complement them by inviting elders and other project leaders to specific events.  Next, we need to multiply the impact of that Validation Groups influence so Police get continuous community input regarding employment, policy review, learning and training and community perceptions.

Evaluation  
Evaluation is under way now. Most is simple: it is observable whether or not (1) promises have been kept and (2) impact on institutions and communities has occurred.   The real evaluation of this project comes in the next one: what will happen, as a result of all of this work, to Aboriginals and Racial Minority residents of Thunder Bay when they encounter police?

Thats where things stand today.  Canadian Heritage will fund a new project to implement the plans.  All we have so far is a well-built foundation.  Many community persons and organizations are willing to risk, to trust and to partner.  Police are ready to do the same.  Now we have to show that better employment strategies are possible, that perceived profiling and over-policing are on the wane, that Meno Wakiagun and the new Street Patrol will happen.  Now we take it to the streets.

The Next Project:  Implementing Diversity

The goal is to continue at a more powerful level - to reduce systemic racism in Policing in Thunder Bay.  A key aspect of the proposed project is that it does not start from scratch. It builds on prior investments by Thunder Bay Police, the rest of the Project Management Team and Heritage Canada.  There are six Areas of Emphasis very high-level goals. They build on the readiness we have created and take the impact to the residents of the City and beyond.  By March 31, 2008 this new project will have achieved the following goals.

• Representation .  Implemented systems and procedures to increase representation of Aboriginals and Racial Minorities. This will affect representation, reputation and in time, front-line police encounters with Aboriginal and Racial Minority persons.
• Anti-Racism Policies .  Analyzed all policing policies to identify ways to reduce the community perception of profiling. This will provide Chief Herman with a vehicle for managing and changing front-line behaviour regarding Aboriginal and Racial Minority persons.
• Learning and Training Implementation .  Developed innovative learning and training strategies to implement and embed the changes, responding both to (1) changes in policy and (2) initial community concerns.  This will embed the policy changes in action, structure and culture of policing in Thunder Bay.
• Sobering-Up Centre .  Supported the establishment of Meno Wakiagun, the Place of Safety - a Sobering-Up Centre in or close to the Simpson-Ogden neighbourhood.  This will increase safety, reduce criminality and reduce the perception of racial profiling.
• Street Patrol .  Supported the re-establishment of a Street Patrol, also targetting the Simpson-Ogden neighbourhood and the South Core.  This will also increase safety, reduce criminality and reduce the perception of racial profiling .
• Sharing the Successes .  Developed and implemented a Strategic Dissemination Plan to share our methods and successes with other organizations.  This will multiply the impact of the investment made by all participants in this change and that of funders also .

To fully communicate the potential and power of the new project it is necessary to review what has already been achieved.

The previous project, Diversity in Policing,  validated examples and sources of real or perceived racism in policing.  Thunder Bay Police have made public commitments to address all areas aggressively.  Work to date has connected Police and influential community members in an alliance not a conflict to share the tasks of implementation.

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