DATE:

 

 20 September 2011

TO/DEST:

 

Executive Director, Ottawa Police Services Board

FROM/EXP:

 

Chief of Police, Ottawa Police Service

SUBJECT/OBJET:

PUBLIC CONSULTATION POLICY ANNUAL REPORT

 

 

RECOMMENDATION 

 

That the Ottawa Police Services Board receive this report for information.

 

BACKGROUND

 

In providing the first annual report to the Board on the Public Consultation Policy CR-6, it is important to provide some background and context for the police service’s community engagement philosophy of which consultation is an important form of engagement along the spectrum of community engagement.  In fact, the Ottawa Police Services Board receives regular reports on community engagement efforts through the Service’s engagement framework known as Partnership in Action.  Partnership in Action, also referred to as PIA, is essentially about building partnerships between the police and Ottawa communities through meaningful community engagement and dialogue.

 

The Ottawa Police Service launched the PIA initiative in 1999 following a 1998 report of the same name.  While the report identified specific partnership work needed with our Aboriginal and minority communities in Ottawa, it also highlighted the need to focus more broadly on community involvement and engagement within policing.  Grounded in the police service`s core value “Working Together for a Safer Community”, PIA remains an important approach for meaningful community engagement by developing, nurturing and strengthening respectful, transparent and trusting relationships between the police service and the diverse communities in Ottawa.

 

Background and History – from Report to Action

 

  1. Partnership in Action Inaugural Assembly – November 27, 1999 featuring Ms. Sherri Torjman from the Caledon Institute of Social Policy who provided the keynote address on partnership principles.
  2. Partnership in Action 2000 – October 27 and 28, 2000 launched CPC based crime prevention programs and the new police leadership.
  3. Neighbourhood Watch in Action Forum – November 7, 2001 launched the revitalized city-wide Neighbourhood Watch program with community partners and residents of Ottawa following eighteen months of consultation and program.
  4. Partnership in Action with Youth:  Meet the Heat:  June 14, 2003 brought youth and police together in a large outdoor venue for relationship building through sport, workshops and music.
  5. Partnership in Action 2005 was a partnership with the National Association of Independent Living Centres and focused on crime prevention and people with disabilities called National Safety Symposium:  Crime Prevention and Independent Living – April 28 – 30, 2005.
  6. Partnership in Action 2007:  City of Ottawa Aboriginal Working Committee – Forum (October 2007) and Listening Circles (January 2008) events were designed to engage social and health services as well as the Aboriginal community.
  7. Partnership in Action 2009 in partnership with the Ottawa Police Services Board –Let’s Chat Coffee Shops – eight consultation sessions held across the city that contributed to the three year strategic business plan for the police service. 

 

COMPAC & CI-CS Teams

The Diversity and Race Relations Section continues to take a leadership role in facilitating the PIA component as it relates to important community engagement work with the Aboriginal, visible minority and the GLBT communities through the Community Police Action Committee (COMPAC) and Critical Incident and Critical Situation (CI-CS) Teams.  This work and community partnerships always plays a critical role in the larger PIA events and approaches for the police service. 

 

Community engagement is entrenched in our core value “Working Together for a Safer Community”, to the 2010-2012 Plan for a Safer Business Plan to district police week events to Partnership in Action.  It is a necessary ingredient for policing.

 

DISCUSSION

 

Community engagement takes many forms.  There are a number of different types of community engagement tools within the community engagement continuum that offer different levels of engagement for different situations, each also offering different benefits and weaknesses.  Whether it’s the Public Participation Spectrum developed by the International Association for Public Participation, Sherry Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation or the Wheel of Participation developed by the Shire of South Lanarkshire, Glasgow, community engagement has different forms along the continuum of engagement ranging from Informational, Consultation, Participation to Empowerment. 

A combination of community engagement approaches is especially important in our complex and ever changing communities.  The Ottawa Police Service recognizes and embraces many different types of community engagement approaches along the continuum in an effort to inform, educate, mobilize and empower our community.  It is in this larger context of community engagement that the board’s public consultation policy must be viewed and actioned by the police service.    

 

This report will demonstrate that community engagement has been entrenched throughout the police service by highlighting major community engagement initiatives that span the entire community engagement continuum while also reporting on the public consultation policy and providing a glance at projects currently underway for 2012 completion.

 

Media Releases

The Ottawa Police Service enjoys a relationship with Ottawa media which is a great way to reach residents of Ottawa with crime and public safety news, public service announcements, community events, safety and prevention information and other policing news.  The police service’s Media Relations Section issues hundreds of media releases a year and receives between 200 and 700 calls a month.  

 

Community Events Calendar

Based on community feedback and interest, the Ottawa Police Service created an online community events calendar in 2009 to capture community policing events across the city.  Residents can view the calendar on the home page of ottawapolice.ca and can now subscribe to receive email updates each time new events are added to the calendar. 

 

Web Statistics – ottawapolice.ca

Internet web site visits to ottawapolice.ca for the period July 1, 2010 to July 1, 2011 were 652,542.  Additional details provided by the Corporate Communications Section about the visits include:

 

RSS Feed Subscribers

Ottawapolice.ca visitors can also subscribe to various areas of the web site and receive automatic email updates whenever certain areas of the web site are updated.  These areas with current subscriber numbers include:

 

Extranets & Community Policing Committees

The Ottawa Police Service has some long standing community-policing committees and projects that utilize internet technology on an extranet web site for enhanced communications, sharing of information, and storing of central meeting files and project work.  Subscribers to these extranet web sites receive email notifications whenever new information such as community events, meeting minutes or announcements are posted.  Extranet sites include:

 

Info Emails

Info@ottawapolice.ca is the organization’s main email inbox for resident inquiries and concerns.  The total info emails received for the period July 2010 to July 2011 were 5,413 emails with an average monthly rate of 451.   

 

Partnerships Inventory

The service is currently conducting the first ever partnership survey across the organization to catalogue partnerships, share best practices and tools and identity gaps.  The survey is currently underway and will be completed later this year.  Partnerships continue to be an effective community engagement approach for the police service.

 

Community Events

The Ottawa Police Service participates in a significant number of community events and meetings (actual number is not available but is estimated to be over 1000 annually) throughout the year and across the city.  Community Police Centre officers and volunteers organize numerous neighbourhood level events, meetings and other initiatives on a regular basis including Police Week (May 2011 = 37) and Crime Prevention Week (November 2010 = over 25).  The list of events for Police Week 2010 was a record breaking high of 60 events in one week organized mainly by CPCs.

 

 

Social Media

More than just a communications tool, social media has important potential for enhanced community engagement within policing.  With the OPS social media project currently underway, the full potential may not be realized until later in 2011; however, there are a number of successful uses.  The Bayshore Community Police Centre, for example, has an active Facebook page.  The Somerset Community Police Centre has a web site and regular email newsletter to a large number of subscribers.  And online commenting was used for a series of consultations in 2009 and 2010 that allowed residents to provide input online.

 

City of Ottawa Departmental Survey on Community Engagement Practices

City of Ottawa staff recently contacted Ottawa Police and other city departments to complete a survey on current community engagement and consultation efforts.  The survey is an opportunity to collect best practices in community engagement tools and explore new collaborative opportunities between city departments where public participation responsibilities exist.  

 

Public Survey

The Performance, Planning & Analytics Section carries out several strategic community engagement initiatives for the police service including a public survey.  Since 1995, the service has conducted a public survey on policing services every three years to gather resident’s input and perceptions on a variety of policing issues such as:  safety and security in their neighbourhood, community priorities for the police, quality and satisfaction with police services and experience with crime.   

 

The most recent public survey was conducted by the police service in 2008 as part of the development of the 2010-2012 Plan for Safer Ottawa.  Of the 7200 survey questionnaires that were distributed to households to ensure a representative sample by ward, police district and across the city, 2508 individuals participated in the survey representing a high response rate of 35%.  Residents identified the top five concerns as:  speeding cars/aggressive drivers, break and enter/burglary, theft from vehicles, vandalism to property and identity theft. 

 

This type of public participation provides critical input that informs the development of the police service’s three year business plan, and helps the police service with ongoing operational decisions to address the needs of residents across the city.  The Performance, Planning & Analytics Section is currently reviewing the research issues, timing and methodology for the next public survey on policing services. 

 

Community Engagement Handout Materials & E-Newsletter

The Community Development Section dispensed with the former `mailing list` many years ago following the use of extranet web sites, outlook contacts lists and other web based tools.  With limited budget for advertising, the Community Development Section uses extensive community outreach networks and partnerships to engage residents of Ottawa. 

 

Until now, community engagement materials in electronic and hardcopy have only been created and made available for specific consultations as needed; however, a general information handout about the police service community engagement efforts including Partnership in Action principles and the role of public participation is being drafted for community consultation in early 2012.

 

Also being drafted and tested for release later in 2011 is the Partnership in Action e-newsletter which will feature community engagement stories and opportunities providing another avenue for community engagement.  

 

Partnership in Action (PIA) – Public Engagement Meetings

In August, the Ottawa Police Service proudly announced the approval and implementation of a Racial Profiling Policy which will act as a guiding principle in recognizing that everyone has the right to live and work in an environment that is free of police action based on racial bias or racial profiling.  The policy represents months of community engagement effort including meetings, online commenting, and a consultation session with over 300 residents last November which was held in partnership with the board.

 

The Ottawa Police Service is partnering with the Ottawa Police Services Board for two fall community engagement meetings – one focusing on youth engagement and the other racial profiling.  The Community Development Section will be working with the board as well as areas of the organization to determine public engagement projects for 2012 that meet current community interests, concerns and priorities.  In addition, there is a role for the section to provide community engagement approaches for the next business planning cycle.  PIA continues to be point of contact for community engagement and partnership efforts for the public: pia@ottawapolice.ca, 613.236.1222, ext.6417.

 

Staff Training & Development – Community Engagement

The Community Development Section is responsible for designing strategic community engagement partnership approaches and is the `home base` for the Partnership in Action initiative.     

 

Community Development Section staff are attending the Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement annual fall program in October to learn additional community engagement approaches.  The Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement is recognized nationally for community engagement, leadership and collaboration.  It is a dynamic organization that develops and supports collaborative strategies that engage citizens and institutions to solve major community challenges, and to learn from and share these experiences.

 

Tamarack`s week long signature learning event provides a unique opportunity to join a learning community of practitioners from across Canada and beyond who are committed to deepening their capacity to lead community collaborations.   In addition to participating in this conference, Tamarack`s president, Paul Born, has recognized and invited the Community Development Section`s manager to be a lead facilitator responsible for guiding daily learning groups, facilitating challenging discussions, fostering collective learning and creating an online profile and blog about community engagement issues and topics.  It will be an opportunity for staff to learn the latest trends and issues and apply them to a policing environment, meet with experts for OPS project work, collaborate and problem solve with a diverse group of field experts and continue to showcase OPS community engagement efforts outside of the city of Ottawa.  

 

In addition, the manager of the Community Development Section is also a member of the International Association for Public Participation and will be completing her certification in public participation from the association in early 2012.  The goal is to create a community engagement strategy with guidelines and a training plan in consultation with the Professional Development Centre that will support the board’s policy. 

 

FINANCIAL STATEMENT

 

Because community engagement efforts and initiatives take many forms across the organization and come from financial accounts, it is difficult to provide a full financial statement. 

 

However, Partnership in Action initiatives for 2011 include:

 

PUBLIC CONSULTATION & CONCLUSION

 

PIA is the cornerstone of public consultation for the police service.  Along with continual consultation at the district and neighbourhood level, PIA initiatives provide an opportunity to focus on particular themes and key decision to support the community-based policing approach.  PIA is more than a traditional consultative event because it aims to identify and build upon community involvement and engagement within policing.

 

The year 2012 will be an opportunity to harness and enhance the service’s community engagement philosophy by creating an overall community engagement strategy as well as a training plan to support the expansion of PIA and the Board’s consultation policy. 

 

The Community Development Section will be working with the board as well as areas of the organization to determine public engagement projects for 2012 that meet current community interests, concerns and priorities.  In addition, there is a role for the section to provide community engagement approaches for the next business planning cycle.  PIA continues to be the point of contact for community engagement and partnership efforts for the public as well:  pia@ottawapolice.ca, 613.236.1222, ext. 6417.

 

 

(Original signed by)

 

Vern White

Chief of Police