THUNDER BAY – The Thunder Bay Police Service is vowing to make changes in the way it operates.
The decision is a reaction to charges of systemic racism and a failure to act quickly enough on recommendations arising from the inquiry into the death of seven Indigenous students between 2001 and 2011.
Calling it a major, long-term undertaking and leaning on ideas gleaned from a trip to police departments in Saskatchewan, acting Police Chief Slyvie Hauth on Thursday said the Change Initiative will look at making improvements in four key areas, including diversity training, recruitment communications and community police.
The first step is to launch the Shaping our Future campaign, aimed at forming working groups both from within the police service and dedicated volunteers from the community to produce an initial vision for the initiative.
“We’ve obviously had a very busy year in 2017 in terms of a number of issues,” Hauth said. “Not only have we been working on the inquest recommendations, but at the time the systemic review was called, we were also approached by the Human Rights Commission.
“At the time we agreed that we would be looking at our internal processes and identifying areas where we could start working and making improvements.
Among the goals is to restore relations between police and the greater community, particularly with the city’s Indigenous population.
Hauth said the plan will also respond to charges of systemic racism by restructuring the Aboriginal liaison unit, attempting to attract more Indigenous and other under-represented groups to the Thunder Bay Police Service, offering diversity and culturally significant courses to employees and making changes to internal and external communications to foster accountability through evaluations.
“We’re hoping to have a working group in place by mid-February. The commitment we’re asking people to commit to, both community members and internal members, is for a year, March 1, 2018 to March 1, 2019,” Hauth said.
“Obviously we’ll be reassessing as we go as we develop our next steps and our action plan.”
The project is a great step in the right directions, said Lakehead University professor and diversity initiative consultant Leisa Desmoulins.
“The vision for this new initiative is doable within the community and within the police service,” Desmoulins said.
“In that way we are really expecting that it will have more ability to maintain that momentum.”
More information is available at www.thunderbaypolice.ca/change.
