Gender-based misconduct within the Ottawa Police Service and what to do about it dominated the discussion at the first in-person police oversight board meeting in more than three years on Monday.
Among the recent CBC News reporting on the problem are allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment made by college students against an Ottawa police sergeant who died by suicide in March, and an allegation of sexual assault against Ottawa police union president Matthew Cox being investigated by Ontario’s police watchdog.
After a decade of assessments, recommendations, promises and millions of dollars spent by service to end this kind of misconduct, some current and former employees of the force have told CBC News that they didn’t think meaningful change was coming.
Another person waiting for change is Keara Dean, a citizen who addressed the board in a public delegation. She felt compelled to speak after reading a recent CBC News story about victims in an active criminal case who said Ottawa police weren’t using a trauma-informed approach in their investigation.
Dean told the board she felt revictimized by Ottawa police after she complained in 2022 about the force’s failure to help her report an historical sexual assault. She went into mediation to resolve her complaint thinking that they would be coming up with solutions together.
Instead, representatives of the force took a defensive position and made her feel like she had done something wrong.
“I was looking for accountability and transparency and responsibility, and I didn’t get that at all. In fact, the opposite,” Dean said.
Police Chief Eric Stubbs asked Dean if she was willing to talk to his employees to help educate them. She replied that the force asked her to do that in 2023, but after she followed up twice, nothing happened.
“No one actually interacted with me. I felt like that was a ploy in mediation to make me feel better. So if you’re actually genuinely asking me to do something, I hope this time you’re actually asking me and not … being performative, because last time it was crushing.”
Deputy Chief Trish Ferguson told the board Monday that the THRIVE committee (Toward Healing, Respect, Integrity, Values and Ethics) is set to meet for the second time Tuesday to hash out its goals and scope.
Broadly, it’s meant to combat workplace sexual violence and harassment at the force. It’s partly made up of members of the service who have experienced misconduct.
The committee will identify and act on patterns of behaviour, look out for retaliation against members who come forward with complaints and hold leaders accountable if progress isn’t made, among other things.
An Ottawa police staff sergeant has been assigned full-time to the committee. The rest of its members are working “off the side of their desks” in addition to their regular duties, Ferguson said.
Board member Coun. Cathy Curry questioned whether the committee will “actually be able to achieve things” with those resources.
Stubbs replied that police often have to work off the side of their desks, and that the members of Ferguson’s committee are as “passionate,” “knowledgeable” and “credible as they come.”
“Our past efforts have not led to the change we had hoped. They were costly, sometimes ineffective in changing behavior, and revictimized our complainants and did more damage than restoration,” Ferguson said — addressing the force’s five reviews and audits of its workplace safety programs and policies in the last decade.
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She also said that while police sign up to defend and advocate for vulnerable victims, and to arrest and hold accountable the perpetrators, “this calling has not always applied inside the walls of the service.”
Ferguson said she continues to see some of her colleagues “struggle to speak up when a colleague is being sexually harassed, or a co-worker, or community members.”
The board carried a motion Monday night requiring the force to update the board at least quarterly on its efforts at change. It wants a “continuing line of sight into the measures and initiatives the service is undertaking and contemplating.”
In addition, the chief must respond in July to an inquiry made by the board about the abuse of police databases. It comes after reports of officers searching databases for information about women they’re attracted to.
The board wants to know how and how often the force detects database misuse, if it has any way to flag irregular access, whether database access audits are done internally or independently, how much time passes from improper access actually occurring to detecting it, and more.
Stubbs told the board that Ottawa police make hundreds of database searches every day and it’s tough to keep track of them, and while there is some auditing in place, “it’s not robust.”
To drive home how serious the abuse of police databases is, the force is about to send an email to all of its employees notifying them of increased penalties, Ferguson said.
Taking questions from reporters before the meeting began, Stubbs said it felt “good to be here. It’s good to be in person. Getting to know, [to] interact with people face-to-face is always more meaningful than on the screen.”
The last time the board met in person was in November 2022, one month after Stubbs was hired. They proceeded virtually for years.
In May, board vice-chair Coun. Marty Carr said staffing was a main reason the board had been meeting virtually.
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The progressive advocacy group Horizon Ottawa called on the board to remove the restrictions it has imposed on people wanting to give public delegations.
Those restrictions include requiring people to submit their proposed delegations in writing and limiting the total time for all delegations to an hour.
Sam Hersh, a board member with Horizon Ottawa, reiterated those demands during his public delegation, while also criticizing increases to the police service’s budget.
Board member Michael Polowin said Hersh’s criticisms of the police budget were better suited for city council, which actually votes on the budget.
Hersh replied that such comments discourage members of the public from speaking at such meetings.
“Perhaps if delegates like you made more appropriate comments to this board, it wouldn’t be an issue,” Polowin said.
“Chair, that’s inappropriate,” Hersh retorted.
During the meeting, which lasted more than four hours, the board also discussed use-of-force statistics, the purchases of additional body cameras for front-line officers, and more.
Several of the nine delegates spoke about the service’s handling of sexual assault cases, but some focused on the other items.
Rob MacDonald spoke to the board about his concerns about police body cameras, as the board was set to approve the purchases of additional cameras for all front-line officers.
“While the use of body cameras may lull some residents into believing that [Ottawa police are] taking steps to reduce police brutality, racialized and vulnerable people in our community will continue to remain at risk of discrimination and excessive use of force,” he said.
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Nicole Corrado, another delegate, asked why its use-of-force data didn’t have information on how it impacts neurodivergent people, or interactions with animals.
The board also gave the service approval to join in on an shared facial recognition network that will share data with the York, Peel and Halton police services.
