OPP meets potential communication employees

Communications is key in the policing business.

Without it officers on patrol would be travelling blindly, hoping to run into crimes in progress and Northwestern Ontario probably wouldn’t be nearly as safe as it is today.

On Wednesday the regional OPP Provincial Communications Centre took steps to ensure the public safety net doesn’t skip a beat, inviting up to 40 potential communications officers to a pair of orientation sessions at their Algoma Street headquarters.

OPP Insp. Connie Capovilla, the unit commander for the Thunder Bay Centre, said the force is continuously on the lookout for people to staff their call centre, which takes dispatch, 911 and administrative calls from the general public.

It takes a special type of person to handle the job, she said.

"We’re looking for people who are extremely professional, have high integrity, are able to multitask, are able to handle whatever call it is, whether it’s a call from a calm caller or a call from someone is extremely distraught," Capovilla said.

"They have to be able to maintain that calm. They have to be able to elicit a large quantity of information, to help us to potentially send an officer to help them."

Officials from the centre sent out a release in late January soliciting interest from the public. Applicants were pre-screened and their numbers trimmed to a manageable size for the two sessions held Wednesday.

"We asked them to fill out a questionnaire and from that we selected our 20 candidates (per session)," Capovilla said.

She added while they aren’t looking for specific numbers of people to fill positions, due to turnover they’re always on the lookout for suitable replacements who can step in at a moment’s notice.

"We are looking to establish a pool that we can call upon to fill our vacancies when they are created. That’s essentially our purpose, to raise some awareness and give some information to the public," Capovilla said.

Those who missed out on this round should not despair, she added. Resumes are always welcome and future sessions will be held. Applicants must be at least 18 and be either a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of the country, and be of good moral character and habits.