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 25 March 2013

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 – 2012 ANNUAL REPORT

RECOMMENDATIONS

That the Ottawa Police Services Board:

1. Approve that the lessons learned from the 2012 Board Performance Evaluation Process be used to develop future board performance evaluation processes with due consideration to the continuous improvement opportunities outlined in the consultant’s report attached at Annex C.

2. Approve the actions recommended by the Policy and Governance Committee in response to the Board performance evaluation, contained in Annex D.

3. Approve that the Board’s Policy and Governance Committee be requested to work with the Board’s Executive Director to include, in the Board’s work plan, continuous improvement in the Board’s effectiveness and performance evaluation process.

4. Receive this report and 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 was submitted to the Board in early 2007 for the year 2006, 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, and most recently for 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 seventh annual report on the Police Services Board’s Activity, Training and Performance, covering the period from 1 January to 31 December 2012.

BOARD ACTIVITY

In 2006 the Board approved that the activity indicators noted below would be tracked throughout the year and reported on in the annual report; statistics on the Board’s 2012 activity are contained in Annex A.

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 and 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 2012 was:

Complaints Committee: 1

Finance & Audit Committee: 2

Human Resources Committee: 3

Policy & Governance Committee: 5.

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 2012 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 2012 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 2012, one new member joined the Board as of 31 December, however training did not occur until 2013.

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, C. Nicholson, L.A. Smallwood and J. Watson.

Board Training as a Whole

In August Board members were given the opportunity to participate in a ride-along with a traffic officer as part of the educational process around the Traffic Stop Race Data Collection Project. Several Board members and the Executive Director took advantage of this opportunity to gain a better understanding of the challenges faced by traffic officers. Also, a special learning opportunity for Board members and the OPS Executive Team on Race Based Data Collection was held in July, attended by B. Hall, Chair of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, and Dr. S. Azmi, also from the Commission, who made a presentation to the group.

On September 24^th the Board hosted a special presentation on the Police Complaints Process to which the public and media were invited. Mr. G. McNeilly from the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) spoke about the public complaints process, and OPS staff from the Professional Standards Section spoke about the Chief’s complaints process. This was an excellent opportunity for Board members and the public to gain a better understanding of the complaints system introduced in the Province in late 2009.

Learning about police operations and programs through staff presentations is one of the objectives contained in the Board’s Strategic Plan. In 2012 the Board received educational presentations from OPS staff at regular Board meetings on the following topics:

· Criminal Investigations Directorate Enhancement Project, co-presented by Professor L. Duxbury and OPS staff

· Ottawa Police Youth Advisory Committee

· Expansion of the “Real You” Wellness Pilot Project

· Collision Reporting Centres.

The Board also received presentations from representatives of the following organizations on the work they do:

· Ottawa Victim Services

· Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women (OCTEVAW)

· National Capital Area Crime Stoppers (in April and October).

BOARD PERFORMANCE

As noted earlier, the Board conducted a comprehensive performance evaluation for 2012 which is addressed later in this section. In addition, the Policy & Governance Committee reviewed the Board’s achievements against its approved work plan for the year.

2012 Work Plan Achievements

The status of all 2012 Board work plan 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. A draft policy on Human Rights and Racial Profiling was reviewed by the Policy & Governance Committee and presented to the Community Police Action Committee (COMPAC) in late 2011. Further community consultation is planned once the consultation phase of the Traffic Stop Race Data Collection Project is completed in early 2013, as it is expected that community feedback obtained through that exercise will inform the Board’s policy.
#11 – Develop a Crisis Communications Plan. This was not completed but discussions have been held about developing a joint Plan with the OPS and this has been added to the 2013 Work Plan.
#12 – Review existing communications policies, protocols and procedures. This was not completed but has been added to the 2013 Work Plan.

In addition to the items in Annex B which were identified in the work plan at the beginning of the year, the Board also undertook the very important tasks of recruiting a new Chief of Police and Deputy Chief of Police in 2012, and also conducted collective bargaining negotiations with both associations.

Board Performance Evaluation

At the 24 September 2012 meeting, the Police Services Board approved the retention of consultant Barb Hume-Wright, a Principal with The Herne Co., to assist in conducting a comprehensive performance evaluation. Ms. Hume-Wright has assisted with the Board’s previous two detailed performance evaluations.

Prior to the evaluation, the Policy & Governance (P&G) Committee comprised of Member Nicholson (Chair), Member Doyle and Vice Chair Durrell, reviewed and made refinements to the evaluation survey tool used in 2009. Among the more significant changes to the tool was an enhanced focus on assessing communications with external parties; this was in response to a recommendation contained in a Communications Plan completed for the Board in 2011.

All Board members completed the evaluation survey in November 2012 and submitted their input to Ms. Hume-Wright for analysis. After collating and analysing the responses, the consultant submitted the report attached as Annex C outlining her findings and suggesting actions the Board may wish to take to improve its performance.

The P&G Committee members considered the report from Ms. Hume-Wright at a meeting on 17 January 2013 with a view to:

Ø Reviewing and discussing the recommendations, findings and possible actions suggested by the consultant.

Ø Identifying which findings the Board should concentrate its efforts on.

Ø Determining what specific actions should be included in future Board work plans.

Each of the consultant’s suggestions were addressed and considered. The chart attached as Annex D summarizes the consultant’s key findings and suggested actions, as well as the P&G Committee’s recommendations. The Committee recommends that an emphasis continue to be placed on Board member orientation, on-going training and education, and that a number of the consultant’s other suggestions be taken under advisement. In support of this emphasis, the Committee has identified the following two specific tasks for inclusion in the Board’s 2013 work plan:

1. Review the materials used to recruit new board members to ensure the “working conditions” are clearly set out.

2. Undertake an annual review of the orientation process and the information/materials provided, including feedback from members on how to continuously improve it.

In addition to identifying areas that might be improved, the consultant also made the following three broad recommendations:

1. Use the lessons learned from its 2012 Board Performance Evaluation Process to develop future board performance evaluation processes with due consideration to the continuous improvement opportunities outlined in the consultant’s report.

2. Request the Board’s Policy and Governance Committee to work with the Board’s Executive Director to include, in the Board work plan, continuous improvement in the Board’s effectiveness and performance evaluation process.

Include an overview of the Board’s 2012 performance evaluation process as part of the Board’s annual report on performance, activities and training, and transmit the annual report to City Council for its information.

The Policy & Governance Committee has conducted a thorough review of the consultant’s analysis and findings arising from the Board’s 2012 performance review and recommends that the Board take the actions outlined in Annex D to this report.

It is important to note that the consultant has emphasized throughout this process that the Ottawa Police Services Board is to be commended for its proactive efforts to improve its effectiveness through regular review and analysis. The Ottawa Police Board continues to be one of the few police services boards in the country that conducts this kind of comprehensive evaluation of its own performance.

CONSULTATION

Consultation was not applicable.

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 2012 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 reports on the Board’s performance in 2012.

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. (A, B, C)