The Ontario government's plan to eliminate the nearly $16,000 tuition fee for basic constable training at the Ontario Police College [OPC] is being welcomed by Sarnia's police chief.
Derek Davis said any assistance offered to encourage recruiting, like removing financial barriers, is appreciated.
"In terms of the OPC requirements and the tuition, I think it's important to know that tuition over the past 20 years for OPC has increased," said Davis. "It wasn't always a cost to new hires. Back in my day there was no cost to going to OPC. So, over the years of cost recovery, those fees increased over time. So, they've reset back so there's no tuition costs to go."
Davis said it was a big expense.
"If you're a young person and you're applying to be a police officer, or if you're an older adult who applies and you have a family, $16,000 is a lot of money. That's a very helpful component from the province. We do appreciate that in terms of our recruiting and I think that's a positive step," he said.
Sarnia Police Service sign at 555 Christina Street North. 4 April 2023. (Photo by Melanie Irwin)
The Ontario government also announced it's scrapping plans to mandate post-secondary education to boost the number of officers across the province more quickly.
The requirement that new police officers have a post-secondary degree, diploma or certificate before being appointed was passed by the provincial legislature in 2019 as part of the government’s Community Safety and Policing Act. The legislation had yet to be proclaimed into law.
But, Chief Davis said applicants who only have a high school education are "very unlikely" to be hired.
"The requirement has always been at minimum high school, but that is a minimum requirement, that doesn't mean it's a competitive requirement," he said.
Chief Davis said Sarnia police generally hire people with vast amounts of life experience and lots of post secondary education.
"The high school minimum requirement applicant is not competitive in today's environment," he said. "Most people, I would say, have post-secondary education of some form or the equivalent in life experience and job experience. So, that really doesn't change anything. It was a proposal to increase the minimum standard to university and all they've done is they've retracted that."
He said the police image portrayed in the United States has impacted the perceptions of policing as a career in Canada.
"That's one of the challenges," said Davis. "We are in the middle of educating how different Canadian police are from U.S. police. That's an important thing that we need to undertake. There's a lot of media coverage out of the U.S. that paints a light on Canadian police that's inaccurate. Our training standards, our pay scales, our hiring practices are very, very different, and I think that's an important message that needs to get out there."
Davis said he continues to look at ways to help with localized recruitment needs, including launching an auxiliary program and transitioning civilian members to sworn duties.