Waterloo Regional Police Service 'lagging significantly' in representing community's diversity: report

The Waterloo Regional Police Service is "lagging significantly" when it comes to representing the diversity of people living in the community, a new survey of members finds.

Ipsos, a market research company, was hired to do a third-party census of the civilian and sworn members of the police service. The censusfound seven per cent of workers are visible minorities.

Meanwhile, visible minorities make up 19 per cent of people living in Waterloo region.

Sean Simpson of Ipsos told the police services board on Wednesday that gap between visible minorities in the community and the service shows the service is "lagging significantly" in representing the diverse makeup of the region.

"Certainly related to that, 23 per cent of the residents of the region say they were born outside of Canada, only 11 per cent of members of the service say they were born outside Canada, so there's a gap there, as well," Simpson noted.

The census was completed by Ipsos for the service to understand who is working for the police service, what they think about their jobs and the role policing plays in the community. A similar survey was done in 2014.

The report, presented Wednesday in a special police services board meeting, was based on an online survey of 509 WRPS members, or about half of the service. Itincluded answers from senior leaders, inspectors, staff sergeants, managers and 379 constables and civilians. All members were invited to take part, so the survey is considered a census rather than a survey and Ipsos says that means there's no margin of error in the responses.

There were also individual interviews conducted between Oct. 19 and Nov. 15.

Better than 2014

Simpson said the service is more reflective of the community than in 2014, "but there is still room to improve."

He noted there's a better balance for gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation but "visible minorities and those not born in Canada are still under-represented."

The census found about five per cent of people working for the service say they are part of the LGBTQ2S community. Simpson said they didn't have an exact figure through Statistics Canada's census metropolitan area numbers to which to compare this number.

But "conventional wisdom" is that in the general population, usually about 10 per cent of people living in metropolitan areas identify as LGBTQ, which means an "informed estimate is the service is under representing LGBTQ" people, he said.

Looking at gender, there is still a skew toward more menthan women working for the service at55 per cent to 45 per cent, the censusfound. That is a change from 2014 when it was a 60/40 split men to women.

No one who took part in the census identified as non-binary but one per cent of people say they prefer to use they/them pronouns.

Understanding the region

The census found 72 per cent of service members feel they know citizens of Waterloo region and their backgrounds well, but Simpson noted only 17 per cent strongly agreed with that statement. He said there may be an opportunityfor the police service to look at ways to improve the education of officers and civilian members about the community they're serving.

Citizens don't just need to understand the service, Simpson said,the members of the service need to understand the community.

The census also looked at internal operations, including well-being, training and communication within the service. There were 10 key findings in the report (listed below) on areas where the service can improve.

Diversifying recruitment

Police Chief Bryan Larkin said the findings will help with the vision of the service moving forward, including with recruitment.

He said the service is aware there is room for improvement and they're working with community partners, including Reception House which welcomes new Canadians to the community and also members of the Somalian community.

"We're looking at a large recruitment strategy within the Somalian community where we have a large local population. Our partnership with Anishnabeg Outreach around outreaching to Indigenous communities we're seeing a large growth in our South Asian population," Larkin said.

"We have a number of South Asian members and we believe that obviously, you know, they're involved in recruiting strategies."

Larkin noted they also have to take into consideration that some people coming to Canada from another country may have an inherent distrust of police, either from experiences or for other reasons.

People 'will be celebrated and embraced'

Larkin added one way they hope to reach more diverse communities is through celebrating the officers and civilian members for who they are. He gave the example of Const. Harpreet Singh, the first WRPS officer to wear a traditional Sikh turban on the job.

"You know, in the last 30 years, we've got a number of officers have been part of our service who identify and celebrate their culture but have not worn the turban. And we see that as a major step forward to building relationships," Larkin said.

"It also ensures that those that are thinking about policing, that it's a safe, welcoming workforce where individuals, regardless of their race, regardless of their religion, regardless of who they are, their sexuality will be celebrated and embraced."

10 key findings

The report from Ipsos offered 10 key areas of improvement for the Waterloo Regional Police Service: