Gazette - How the RCMP prepares members to police bias-free

By Caroline Ross

When new members of the RCMP begin field training, one of their first assignments is to identify a particular community group — cultural, religious, demographic or other — and work with it to address an issue of concern.

The exercise is just one example of how the RCMP is striving to build a bias-free police force — one in which members instinctively provide equitable, respectful service to every individual, regardless of that person’s age, race, religion, gender, mental or physical capacity, or other potentially “defining” characteristic.

“Canada is going through big changes in internal diversity,” says Insp Shelly DuPont, who helped pen the RCMP’s policy on bias-free policing in 2005. Police officers must be able to integrate into the communities they serve, she says, and integration requires a constantly evolving understanding of various populations and their unique needs.

“With bias-free policing, it’s really a personal growth of each and every officer,” says DuPont.

Building foundations

The growth process begins at the outset of the 24-week RCMP Cadet Training Program (CTP). The very first training module includes 18.5 hours of in- and out-of-class learning on concepts such as diversity, prejudice, discrimination, ethics, Canadian human rights history, and relevant legislation. Cadets also have opportunities to explore their own personal biases.

“The time that we spend on these concepts is comparable to the time we spend on other key concepts such as the powers of arrest and release, risk assessment and statement-taking,” says Christine Hudy, lead educational methodologist at the RCMP training depot. “It’s really a significant time block in the CTP.”

Bias-free policing is crucial in a diverse country like Canada, where Islam is the fastest growing religion, seniors are the fastest growing age group, and the visible minority population could reach 20 per cent by 2017.

From there, cadets learn to apply the concepts of bias-free policing during several realistic training scenarios that also teach the “nuts and bolts” of police work. Cadets tackle vandalism in a Vietnamese community, investigate a case of fraud involving seniors, and more — learning how to exercise their policing duties in a climate of tolerance and respect.

“By the time cadets leave [training], they’re very solid critical thinkers,” says Hudy. “They [understand] that public interest is best served by learning about and working with your clients.”

Continuous learning

After basic training, every officer is responsible for enhancing his or her own knowledge of Canadian diversity. Different postings will require different levels of awareness and integration, and the force provides several resources to help members prepare accordingly.

RCMP National Crime Prevention Services hosts an internal Bias-Free Policing website, where officers can access more than 100 cultural profiles created by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, browse dozens of religious summaries written by the Department of National Defence, and connect with regionally based RCMP diversity co-ordinators who can advise on local resources.

The RCMP Learning and Development branch offers self-directed online courses on topics such as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Aboriginal culture and Alzheimer’s disease.

And divisions across the force are developing more ground-level resources to address local policing needs — a list of Inuit elders who can advise on cultural issues in Nunavut, for example, or a workshop on African-Canadian and Mi’kmaq cultural sensitivities in Nova Scotia.

Officers also learn from experience, says Sgt Greg Ericson of the Brooks, Alberta, RCMP detachment. Ericson now provides new detachment members with information sheets on the Islam faith, owing to Brooks’ growing Somali and Sudanese immigrant population.

Local officers are also reaching out to educate the immigrant community about Canadian laws.

Such community engagement is truly the heart of bias-free policing, says DuPont. But well-informed police officers are only part of the bias-free picture.

“It’s equally important for the RCMP to educate our communities about what we do,” says DuPont.

“A lot of new Canadians may not have access to that [information].”