Chief’s Verbal – 24 January 2011

Project Upsilon

In August 2010, members of the Ottawa Police Service Drug Unit identified an Organized Group involved in the distribution of large amounts of cocaine and cannabis marihuana within the City of Ottawa.  Over the next several months, the activities of the group were monitored as officers of the Drug Unit gathered grounds.  In the afternoon hours of Friday, January 21, 2011, officers began arresting the members of the group. The arrests completed in the early morning hours of Saturday, January 22, 2011 resulting in four adults charged and $500,000 of drugs and cash seized during Project Upsilon.

Congratulations were extended to the Drug Unit and its many support units including Surveillance for the great job they did this weekend.  Many congratulatory emails were received from members of the community saying the same thing.

Ottawa Police Service Commendation Program - Update

The OPS Commendation Program commenced on April 1, 2010.  It has been a real success and accepted very well by the membership.

In 2010 the following commendations were awarded:

Chiefs Commendation:  1

Senior Officer Commendation:  21

Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) Commendation:  15

First Homicide of 2011

On 1 January 2011, a deceased male was discovered along the 100 block of Stanley Ave.  The autopsy that followed confirmed that the individual had been stabbed.  The Emergency Services Unit (ESU) was used over the course of two days that followed to conduct a thorough search of the surrounding area for anything of evidentiary value.  Within 48 hours, a team of 9 major crime detectives, after interviewing numerous potential witnesses and gathering evidence through other means, identified and arrested a suspect.  The identification was made by patrol officers after a surveillance image was disseminated internally by detectives.  Jennifer BIRD, was arrested in the downtown area and has since been charged with one count of second degree murder. 

The two Patrol officers received NCO commendations from the Major Crime Section at their platoon parade on 24 January.

2009 Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Initiative (OMBI) Report

Many Board members will be aware of the annual OMBI process in place since 2005.  The main report covering a number of service areas will be released this coming Friday, the 28th.  The City is preparing a high-level dashboard for Council with our input.  As we’ve done in past years, we will also prepare a more detailed report for the February Board meeting which includes publicly and non-publicly reported data compared to the provincial median.  Also note that the OMBI/OACP police-expert panel on which Director Randy Mar represents the OPS will meet on 01 March in the Toronto area to further discuss these findings as well as refinements to the police indicators.

As in past years, Ottawa continues to compare favourably to the Provincial Median in almost all reported categories.  It is important discussions continue to be had regarding what is reported, how it is reported and to whom.

National Professionalism in Policing Survey

The Ottawa Police is participating in the survey being conducted by Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP).  The intent is to ask NCO's and constables their opinion on a variety of factors affecting professionalism in policing.  We will receive aggregated results for our Service, which can be used as part of our ethics and accountability framework being developed under the business plan.  This will also dovetail with the public and member surveys to be carried out later this year.

Per Capita Expenditures

A recent Globe & Mail article on per capita expenditures over the past 10 years – many Board members may have seen this article which showed Ottawa in a somewhat favourable light...we've done some further research with the help of Statistics Canada, and can report that for the 2000-2009 period, per capita expenditures on policing in Ottawa increased by 20%, placing us the 2nd lowest among the 16 cities cited in the Globe (verses median of 31% increase).  StatsCan was concerned that amalgamation may have distorted Ottawa expenditure numbers for 1998 and 1999 even though the Region had a single board then, which was responsible for the entire policing jurisdiction and costs.  I wanted to bring this to your attention as the Globe article indicated a 3% increase for 1998-2009.  Albeit differing years, the chart supports the general pattern of per capita expenditure increases found in the G&M chart, with York (53.7%) and Halifax (53.4%) having the greatest percentage increase and Ottawa, even with 20% increase, last/next-to-last.  Interestingly, Quebec City and Surrey change dramatically with the different time horizon.