DATE:

 

22 October 2012

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

 

The Ottawa Police Service is committed to maintaining and building upon its open dialogue and relationships between the police and the diverse Ottawa community through meaningful community engagement and ongoing dialogue.  The service uses a public consultation strategy with a wide range of approaches supported by solid communication tools and this annual report is an opportunity to report on the comprehensive strategy and those robust tools, while reporting on the policy requirements.

 

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. It will also report on the OPS public consultation policy and provide a glance at projects currently underway.

 

In providing the second annual report to the Board on the Public Consultation Policy CR-6 for the period of July 2011 to June 2012, 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.  The Ottawa Police Services Board already receives regular reports on community engagement efforts through the Service’s engagement framework known as Partnership in Action (PIA).  PIA is essentially about building partnerships between the police and Ottawa communities through meaningful community engagement and dialogue.

 

The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) 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.  It is a best practice approach recognized in community policing. 

 

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. 
  8. Partnership in Action: Let’s Chat Youth Café (October 2011) brought youth and police together to have a dialogue about youth issues and consultation on the design of a new Youth Advisory Committee 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 our community partnerships always play 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”, our Business Plan, our district Police week events, and Partnership in Action initiatives.  It is a necessary ingredient for effective community policing.

 

DISCUSSION

 

Community engagement takes many forms.  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 is viewed and actioned by the police service.    

 

Web Statistics – ottawapolice.ca

Internet web site visits to ottawapolice.ca were up significantly for the period July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012:  757,013 (11% of views were accessed from a mobile device).  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 all show an increase in subscriber numbers compared to the last reporting period:

 

 

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 2011 to June 2012 were over 5000 emails with an average monthly rate of 535.  The top five categories of Info emails include (in no particular order):

·         Questions regarding record checks

·         Questions regarding recruiting

·         Add information to existing report

·         Report crime (traffic complaints, fraud and drugs are common)

·         Compliments

 

Social Media

Social media is an increasingly important tool for enhanced public engagement.  With the leadership on the Corporate Communications Section, the OPS launched several social media accounts during this period and will continue to expand its use over the next several months with Twitter Chats and other online forums.  Current social media accounts and statistics include:

 

 

Media Releases

The OPS Media Relations Section represents the main connection between the OPS and media. This section is responsible for releasing and providing information regarding crime and public safety through a variety of means including media releases, public service announcements, community events, safety and prevention information and other policing news. For example, the section issues hundreds of releases a year and receives between 250 and 550 media requests calls a month.  Most recently, this section has begun utilizing social media to disseminate information from the OPS to a wider audience on social media. 

 

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 2012 = 18) and Crime Prevention Week (November 2011 = 19). 

 

The Ottawa Police Service has an online community events calendar that captures community policing events across the city.  Residents can view the calendar on the home page of ottawapolice.ca and subscribe to receive email updates each time new events are added to the calendar. 

 

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.   

 

As already presented to the Board in May, the most recent public survey was conducted by the police service earlier this year as part of the development of the 2013-2015 Plan for Safer Ottawa.  Of the 16000 survey questionnaires that were distributed to households to ensure a representative sample by ward, police district and across the city, 3147 individuals participated in the survey representing a response rate of 20.4%.  Residents identified the top five concerns as:  speeding cars/aggressive drivers, presence of drugs/dealers, youth crime, street gangs, and break and enter.  

 

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.   

 

Partnership in Action (PIA) – Public Engagement Meetings

 

Already presented to the board earlier this year, the Community Development and Youth Section led a significant consultation initiative for a youth engagement strategy that began publically last fall with the Let’s Chat Youth Café at the Nepean Sportsplex.  In world café format, over 100 youth and police met to talk about youth issues and ideas for a youth engagement strategy.  Additional consultation and community outreach followed the session that led to the design of a new Ottawa Police Youth Advisory Committee.  A year later the new committee is actively contributing the youth-police relationship and a safer Ottawa.  A full report and public launch is expected in October or November. 

 

The Ottawa Police Service is partnering with the Ottawa Police Services Board and Crime Prevention Ottawa for three fall community consultation events related to organizational projects:

 

The Community Development Section will be working with the board as well as areas of the organization to determine public engagement projects for 2013 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 and partnership approaches and is the `home base` for the Partnership in Action initiative.     

 

Community Development Section staff attended the Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement annual program last October in Calgary 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.

 

In addition to participating in this conference, the Community Development Section`s manager was a lead facilitator responsible for guiding daily learning groups, facilitating challenging discussions, fostering collective learning and creating a winning blog about community engagement issues and topics.  It was 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.  

 

The manager of the Community Development Section is also a member of the International Association for Public Participation and completed a certificate in public participation from the association in May 2012.  To support the Board’s policy requirements, she is currently developing a community engagement strategy with guidelines and a training plan for early 2013 implementation (following consultation with the Professional Development Centre planned for later this fall). 

 

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 relies on support from Corporate Communications and Media Relations sections and uses extensive community outreach networks and partnerships to engage residents, partners and agencies in Ottawa. 

 

Electronic and hardcopy community engagement materials are currently only being 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 will be drafted for consultation later this year.  It was previously planned for design and consultation earlier this year, but it is now being better aligned for release following the staff training.

 

The Partnership in Action e-newsletter to feature community engagement stories and opportunities has also been delayed due to staffing changes and additional research requirements and is expected to be released later this year.  

 

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 2012 include:

 

PUBLIC CONSULTATION & CONCLUSION

 

Supported by strong corporate communications, 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 decisions 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 service’s community engagement philosophy will be enhanced later this year with the creation of an overall community engagement strategy as well as a training plan to support the expansion of PIA and the Board’s consultation policy in 2013. 

 

The Community Development Section will be working with the board as well as areas of the organization to determine public engagement projects for 2013 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)

 

Charles Bordeleau

Chief of Police