|
|
OTTAWA POLICE SERVICES BOARD COMMISSION DE SERVICES POLICIERS D’OTTAWA
|
|
|
Working together for a safer community La sécurité de notre communauté, un travail d’équipe |
REPORT RAPPORT |
|
DATE 15 March 2012
TO/DEST. Chair and Members, Ottawa Police Services Board
FROM/EXP. Executive Director, Ottawa Police Services Board
SUBJECT/OBJET POLICE SERVICES BOARD ACTIVITY, TRAINING AND PERFORMANCE – 2011 ANNUAL REPORT
RECOMMENDATION
That the Ottawa Police Services Board:
1. Receive this report for information.
2. Forward it to City Council for information.
BACKGROUND
In December 2005 the Ottawa Police Services Board received a report from the City of Ottawa Auditor General on the Board’s governance practices. Among the Auditor General’s recommendations were the following:
a) That the Board specify training requirements and report annually (and publicly) on individual member training, and training of the Board as a whole.
b) That the Board determine performance evaluation measures and conduct a formal Board evaluation annually.
c) That the Board report the results of the performance evaluation in a board activity report … (including) information on such things as:
- number of board meetings held
- number of community meetings held
- ceremonial events attended
- number of Council presentations
- hours of commitment
- board training.
The first annual report on Board Activity and Training covering the period January 1 to December 31, 2006 was submitted to the Board in early 2007 and forwarded to City Council for information; a separate report on the results of the Board’s first formal performance review process was also submitted. At that time the Board decided to conduct comprehensive, formal evaluations at least once every four years and less formal evaluations in other years. Comprehensive performance reviews were conducted for the years 2006 and 2009; the next formal evaluation will be conducted at the end of 2012. The less formal evaluations conducted in other years consist of measuring the Board’s achievements against its work plan for each year. The Policy & Governance Committee takes the lead in conducting these reviews.
This report and the data contained in Annex A constitute the sixth annual report on the Police Services Board’s Activity, Training and Performance, covering the period from 1 January to 31 December 2011. Also contained in this report is an overview of the Board’s 2011 performance review.
BOARD ACTIVITY
In 2006 the Board approved that the following activity indicators be tracked throughout the year and reported on in the annual report:
Activity Indicators
1. Board and Committee Meetings
The volume of work associated with board and committee meetings on a monthly basis demonstrated by:
· Number of meetings, including all board meetings (public and in camera), meetings of board’s standing committees (Complaints Committee, Finance & Audit Committee, Human Resources Committee, and Policy & Governance Committee), and other committees on which board members serve (Community Awards Selection Committee, Police Scholarship & Charitable Fund Board of Trustees, Thomas G. Flanagan Scholarship Award Selection Committee)
· Hours spent at meetings
· Number of items on agendas (public and in camera)
· Number of pages of agenda material reviewed.
2. Community Meetings
In accordance with the Auditor’s recommendations, the number of community meetings is identified separately from other board meetings and includes statistics on:
· Number of meetings
· Hours spent at meetings.
3. Other Functions & Events
Members of the Police Services Board attend a wide variety of other business functions and ceremonial events outside of board and committee meetings each year, such as: business meetings (OAPSB Board of Directors, Big 12 boards, meetings with city or provincial officials); collective bargaining and other meetings related to labour relations; Ottawa Police Association functions; Senior Officers’ Association functions; media conferences; briefings; police awards ceremonies; recruit badge ceremonies; community events; and meetings with other community partners. This category records the following statistical information related to these other functions:
· Number of events
· Hours spent at them.
Board Committees
Under the terms of the Board’s Committee Policy #GA-4, the Policy & Governance Committee and the Finance & Audit Committee are both required to meet a minimum of four times a year, while the Complaints Committee and Human Resources Committee meet on an as required basis. The number of times the committees met in 2011 was:
Complaints Committee: 0
Finance & Audit Committee: 4
Human Resources Committee: 2
Policy & Governance Committee: 7.
Additional Workload for Board Chair
The indicators tracked and reported on in Annex A do not reflect the additional time the Chair of the Board spends dealing with emails and phone calls on matters related to the work of the Board outside of meetings. The Board Chair estimated that in 2011 an average of 12 hours per week was spent on emails, phone calls and media inquiries. The majority of meetings attended by the Board Chair are captured in the statistics for “other functions and events” contained in Annex A.
BOARD TRAINING
The Auditor General’s report emphasized the importance of board member orientation and training as essential elements of good governance. To assist the Ottawa Police Board in ensuring its members make the commitment to ongoing learning, the Auditor General recommended that the Board specify training requirements for its members, and report annually and publicly on training for the Board as a whole and for individual members. The Board captured these recommendations in a Training Policy adopted in 2006. Statistics for training in 2011 are contained in Annex A.
Indicators pertaining to board training include:
· Ministry training attended by board members either individually or as a group
· Other training/education sessions attended by the Board as a group
· Other training/education sessions attended by each individual board member
· Hours spent in training by the Board as a whole and by individual board members.
If the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services offered no training in the year being reported on, the Activity Report will indicate that. Similarly, if there were no members serving their first year on the Board in the year being reported on, the report will indicate that the required orientation training for new members was not applicable for that year. In 2011, two new members joined the Board: one in February and one in July. In addition, a former member was re-appointed in August for a term set to expire December 31, 2012.
Both new members participated in a two hour Ministry training session as well as a two-hour orientation briefing delivered by the Board Solicitor and Executive Director. This training is captured in Annex A.
A recommendation arising from the 2009 performance evaluation and accepted by the Board is to acknowledge in this annual report that failure to engage in appropriate training and development opportunities limits a board member’s ability to participate effectively as a board member.
Another recommendation approved by the Board on 1 February 2010 was that on an annual basis, each member of the Board shall be asked to read and sign the “Police Services Board Code of Conduct” contained in Police Services Act regulation, and that the names of members signing the affirmation form be recorded in the Annual Report on Activity, Training and Performance. The following members have signed and submitted an affirmation form, thereby signifying their review of the Code and their re-commitment to it: A. Doyle, J. Durrell, E. El‑Chantiry, J. Harder, H. Jensen, C. Nicholson and J. Watson.
Board Training as a Whole
Board members were given the opportunity to participate in an abbreviated Use of Force training session at the Ottawa Police Service’s Professional Development Centre on June 6th. Four members of the Board and Board staff spent four hours at this unique training opportunity to gain better insight into the various use of force options and the factors that go into a police officer’s decision to use force. The Board also hosted a Public Interest Meeting on “Community Solutions for Preventing Youth Crime” in April and co-hosted a “Let’s Chat Youth Café” consultation in October that served as learning opportunities for Board members as well as the community members who attended.
The Board also received educational presentations from OPS staff at regular Board meetings on the following topics:
· Review of Cell Block Operations (January and September)
· Quality Assurance and Risk Management Unit
· The Auxiliary Policing Program
· The Youth in Policing Initiative
· The Respectful Workplace Program
· Business Continuity Management Project.
BOARD PERFORMANCE
The Policy & Governance Committee measured the Board’s performance in 2011 by comparing its achievements against its approved work plan for the year. The Board’s 2011 work plan and the status of all items at year-end are set out in Annex B. All tasks were completed with the exception of the following (item numbers correspond to the “Establishing Expectations” section of Annex B):
- #9 – Develop Board Policy on Racial Profiling. This has not been completed but is well underway. A draft policy on Human Rights and Racial Profiling has been reviewed by the Policy & Governance Committee and was presented to the Community Police Action Committee (COMPAC) in October for feedback. Further community consultation is planned in 2012.
- #11 – Review of Complaints Policy. This was not completed but will be added to the 2012 Work Plan.
- #12 – Review of Workplace Violence and Harassment Policy. This was not completed but will be added to the 2012 Work Plan.
Since 2008 the Board has placed an emphasis on community engagement, education and outreach. In 2011, some of the achievements in this area included the following:
· As mentioned earlier, two public interest meetings were held, both dealing with issues related to youth. The first one on “Community Solutions for Preventing Youth Crime” led to a “Let’s Chat Youth Café” designed to obtain feedback directly from youth on: what would make Ottawa safer for youth; how can youth contribute to a safer Ottawa; and, what would a successful youth advisory committee to the Chief look like? Plans are well underway by OPS staff, working in collaboration with youth, to establish a youth advisory committee as envisioned by those who participated in the Let’s Chat session. These public interest meetings addressed two out of three topics that the Board had specifically identified in its 2011 work plan as priorities; a meeting on the third topic – Racial Profiling – was to have taken place in November but has been deferred to 2012.
· The Board Chair, Chair of the Policy & Governance Committee, and Executive Director met with the Co-Chairs of COMPAC in September in relation to the Board’s draft policy on human rights and racial profiling. This meeting was followed up by a presentation of the policy to the whole COMPAC group in October for the purpose of obtaining feedback from the Committee’s community members. As previously mentioned, broader consultation is planned in 2012 in collaboration with the Police Service. COMPAC was one of two groups that the Board specifically earmarked for relationship-building when it established its 2011 work plan. The other was the Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership Council.
· Several presentations by OPS members were scheduled at regular Board meetings throughout the year as educational opportunities for the Board and the public. One in particular – on the subject of “The Cell Block Today” - was requested by the Board Chair with a specific view to better informing the public and the media. It was very well attended by the media and received positive coverage.
In addition to the items in Annex B which were identified in the work plan at the beginning of the year, the following initiatives were undertaken:
· Development of a Board Communication Plan. The Board commissioned a consultant to prepare a communication plan in February, which was submitted in June 2011. The consultant’s recommendations have been introduced incrementally, with some being put on hold pending completion of a Board Strategic Plan to ensure that communication efforts support the Board’s strategic priorities. These initiatives are important to the Board’s community outreach, education and engagement objectives.
· Development of a Strategic Plan for the Board. The Board undertook development of a strategic plan at the end of September, which was adopted in January 2012. The Plan is a critical document for the Board and the public in providing direction and articulating what the Board’s goals and objectives are for the 2012-2014 timeframe.
· Collective Bargaining. Throughout the fall, the Board’s negotiating team worked to achieve a negotiated renewal of the Collective Agreements for Sworn and Civilian members of the Ottawa Police Service. Unfortunately negotiations were unsuccessful and the matter is proceeding to the conciliation/arbitration process.
CONSULTATION
Consultation was not applicable in the preparation of this report.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
There are no costs associated with this report.
CONCLUSION
This report meets the City of Ottawa Auditor General’s 2005 recommendation to report annually and publicly on the activities, training and performance of the Ottawa Police Services Board. Statistical information was collected throughout 2011 on the number of meetings and other functions attended by Board members and the hours spent at them, as well as training or educational opportunities in which Board members participated. The report also provides a summary of the Board’s performance towards meeting its approved work plan in 2011.
In accordance with the Auditor General’s recommendation, it is recommended that this report be forwarded to City Council for information.
(Original signed by)
Wendy Fedec
Executive Director
Attach. (2)
