Ottawa Police Services Board

January 28, 2013

Chief’s Verbal Report

 

Good evening.

 

I’d like to add my congratulations to Member Smallwood; welcome to the Board.  Congratulations to Mr. Chair and Mr. Vice-Chair, I look forward this upcoming year.  I’d like to take a moment to update the Board on some of the matters and initiatives the Ottawa Police Service has been involved in, since we last met.

 

Double-murder suicide in Stittsville

As the Board would have seen in the media, a couple of weeks ago there was a double-murder suicide in Stittsville involving two victims, aged 10 and 6, and their mother.  This was a terrible circumstance and an unfortunate reminder of the types of tragedies that we must sometimes face in our community.

 

However, this challenging investigation also demonstrated the professionalism of our staff and the strength of our Service in working together in different capacities ― from taking the emergency call, to processing the scene, to supporting the victims’ families, to conducting the investigation, and so on and so forth.

 

I was very impressed with how this case was handled and I know my sentiments are echoed by our Senior Officers.

 

Vehicle recovery from the Ottawa River / Missing persons investigation

As much as policing is a part of our every day mission, so are partnerships.  A lot of what we do cannot be accomplished without our partners.  An example of this is a missing persons investigation we became involved in two weeks ago involving a 61-year-old female and her 29-year-old son.

 

We had received a report of a possible vehicle that had broken through the ice on the Ottawa River and it was later determined that the vehicle and occupants were linked to the missing persons case.  The recovery of the vehicle and victims proved difficult due to temperature and the conditions of the water.

 

Nevertheless, thanks to our members and our partners such as Hydro Ottawa, Ottawa Fire Services, Ottawa Paramedic Service, City of Ottawa Public Works, and the crane operators, the recovery was successfully completed.

 

Not only were the efforts of all those involved commended by the Mayor, the Chair of the Board, and myself, the family members of the victims were also appreciative of the hard work and dedication that went into this matter.

 

 

New Director of Community Development

I am pleased to announce and welcome Mr. D. Snoddy as the new Director of Community Development.  Mr. Snoddy is currently a manager with the Ontario Public Service and will join the OPS team effective 19 February 2013.  He brings with him 30 years of work in the private, community, and public sectors and 20 years of leadership experience within these entities, including extensive work with police services at the Ontario Police College.  In addition Mr. Snoddy has worked at the Ontario Correctional Services College and various community based organizations including the Aids Committee of Toronto and the Canadian Aids Foundation and Exchange.  Mr. Snoddy will be attending the 25 March Board meeting.

 

Human Library

Our members are routinely involved in a number of community initiatives that allow them to engage with the very people they serve.  Just recently, two of our members participated in a program put on by the Ottawa Public Library, in partnership with CBC Ottawa, called “Human Library”.

 

Cst. Jeffrey Eva-Gonzalez and Staff Sergeant Kal Ghadban volunteered themselves as “books” that can be checked out by a member of the public.  The person who selects them has 20 minutes to converse with them and ask questions, in order to gain a better understanding of who they are as individuals and as officers.  This is a great way to connect with our community and build relationships and I hope we have an opportunity to continue to take part in this innovative program.

 

Sleep Out for Youth Ottawa

I have been approached to take part in a very important community initiative.  Between February 4th and 5th, I will be participating in Sleep Out for Youth Ottawa to raise awareness around youth homelessness and raise much needed funds for solutions.

 

My role as Chair of the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa has given me a deep appreciation for the work of our partner agencies and I am really pleased to be taking part in such a worthwhile event.  Both the Mayor and Chair will be joining me for the sleep out and I have a feeling we’re going to become much closer. I do have to disclose however, when I offered to participate in this event, I did not have the long term forecast....

 

Public Consultation - TSRDCP

And finally, I’d like to end off with an important reminder in relation to our upcoming public consultation on the Traffic Stop Race Data Collection Project this Thursday.

 

We recently hosted our first ever Tweet Chat and it generated some great discussion and questions about the Raced Based Data Collection Project.  I am really looking forward to this additional opportunity for dialogue.

 

Thank you and I am happy to take any questions you may have.